The Show Must Go On
The Show Must Go On
Murray Cammick
Photospace Gallery
37 Courtenay Place, Te Aro, Wellington
9 April - 28 May 2022
Opening: Friday 8 April, 5.30pm-7.30pm
After the success of the 2020 Flash Cars show, Murray Cammick returns to Photospace Gallery with a selection of his classic music images. This show is based on the earlier 2017 punk & new wave-focused exhibition that was shown in Sydney and Auckland. Additions to this show include photographs of Bob Dylan, Roxy Music, Kate Bush, Tina Turner and previously unseen Bob Marley images.
The exhibition largely consists of high-quality black and white images printed using the traditional silver-gelatin darkroom process by top New Zealand printer Jenny Tomlin.
The Wellington show has also added a selection of colour photographs of local legends from the 1980s and 1990s, including Herbs and Shihad. These are digital pigment prints.
When RipItUp started in June 1977, co-publisher Cammick and original editor Alastair Dougal were not aware of how radical the changes in music culture would be as the decade ended. Foreign punk / new wave acts like The Ramones, Iggy Pop and Blondie visited and locals like The Suburban Reptiles, The Scavengers and Toy Love put some energy into the scene. These local musicians appeared on the classic New Zealand punk compilation AK•79.
New Zealand musicians were inspired by the success of Split Enz overseas, and original writers like Hello Sailor, Th’ Dudes and Sharon O’Neill found respect for their own songs. In a time of cultural change, RipItUp and Cammick’s camera documented important cultural events such as Bob Marley’s 1979 visit to New Zealand and suburban cultural events like young band The Screaming Meemees playing in a packed North Shore suburban hall.
Reflecting on his music photos for the Capture blog, Cammick wrote: “I tried to document the music and the scene as a “fly-on-the-wall” documentary photographer. You either contribute to the myths / bullshit of rock ‘n’ roll or you try and show some of the reality of the grind of promotion and touring. I recall being at Craccum in 1976 and being delighted that our music editor John Robson came back from a press conference with a photo of Frank Zappa drinking a cup of tea. How sublimely un-rock ‘n’ roll!
Murray Cammick - Iggy Pop reads RipItUp, July 1979
“Shooting un-rock ‘n’ roll photos became something to aspire to, so I was pleased to get Iggy Pop in his clunky reading glasses laughing at the Talking Heads story in RipItUp magazine. As we arrived at Iggy's White Heron Hotel room he was still in his pyjamas and I sneaked a shot but he heard the camera and made it clear, “No photos in my pyjamas.”
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