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 I'll Be Watching You: Inside The Police, 1980-83 Taschen Book of Photography by Andy Summers The insider: The Police on tour photographed by guitarist Andy Summers This book, somewhere between photojournalism and an illustrated diary, follows The Police around the globe between 1980 and 1983. From the American West to Australia to Japan, Summers recorded not only the band members rehearsing and partying‹the proverbial sex, drugs, and rock and roll he also photographed fans, landscapes, still lifes, and passersby in a reportage style reminiscent of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. Containing over 600 photos and filled with diary-style entries, I'll Be Watching You is a sumptuous volume beating with musical energy, nostalgia, and atmospheric beauty. A must for photo buffs and Police fans alike. 
Collector's edition features: Highlights include: Countries covered in the book: 
I'll Be Watching You: Inside The Police, 1980-83 Click here to view the gallery of available prints. All prints are signed by Andy Summers, numbered and come with a certificate of authenticity. Visit the hp.com graphic arts portal for more details BACK TO TOP |
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 Exhibition: View Gallery of Images from the Exhibition I'll Be Watching You: Inside The Police 1980-1983 In the early 1980s, The Police went on tour accompanied by a photographer who documented the band behind the scenes in a series of candid and striking black and white photos. This talented photographer also happened to be the band's guitarist, Andy Summers. Yes, it's true‹the man responsible for the guitar lick from "Every Breath You Take" was not only the backbone of one of the most popular bands of all time, he also possessed a visual gift for composition and mood that allowed him to capture the spirit of The Police better than anyone else could have. Now in the midst of the frenzy accompanying the band's reemergence, Andy Summers heralds his return with a biathlon of photographic output: an exclusive photographic exhibition in cities worldwide produced on the HP digital technology, and a book published by Taschen. The gallery shows, presented in conjunction with Rockarchive.com, began in June and has opened with great success in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Toronto, New York and will continue to travel worldwide, following the Police tour. A heady mix of shooting from the hip and street photography, the exhibition follows The Police around the globe between 1980 and 1983. From the American West to Australia to Japan, Summers recorded not only the band members rehearsing and partying‹the proverbial sex, drugs, and rock and roll‹he also photographed fans, landscapes, still life's, and passersby in a reportage style reminiscent of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. Containing 38 exclusive, limited edition, hand signed prints and filled with diary-style entries, I'll Be Watching You KFis a sumptuous volume beating with musical energy, nostalgia, and atmospheric beauty. Each of the striking black and white photos featured in the exhibit was produced with the new HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer series, using HP Vivera pigment inks on HP Professional Satin Photo Paper, resulting in vivid, museum-quality prints with outstanding longevity. A must for photo buffs and Police fans alike. Visit the hp.com graphic arts portal for more details. The books and the exhibition are as much a diary of a deeply personal
journey as they are a documentary of a rock and roll band shot from the
inside out. Summers solo music, which has always been searching and
synergistic in expression, finds a parallel in his photography. The
exhibition and the book are a piercing glimpse of every breath of the band
inside and outside the fishbowl by a mature artist who is clearly destined
to be a significant figure in contemporary photography. BACK TO TOP
Now a resident in Santa Monica, California, Summers, 64, continues to shoot with his Leica. He sees his work as being in the tradition of the great photojournalists and as a complement to his successful and acclaimed solo career with contemporary instrumental music that, like his work with Sting and Stewart Copeland, draws on his love of jazz, world, classical music, and his fascination with creating sonic textures. His post-Police years have produced more than two dozen solo albums, soundtracks, and collaborations, plus hundreds of international concerts, and induction to both the Guitar Player Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Summer's parallel passion for photography has led him to document subjects ranging from rural communities throughout Southeast Asia to timeless noir-style street scenes in cities around the world. His photographs have been shown in galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris and London, and his books include Throb (1983), the Ralph Gibson collaboration Light Strings: Impressions of the Guitar (2004), and the memoir One Train Later (2006). History of Rockarchive.com In the footsteps of collectives like Magnum, Rockarchive is run very much on behalf of its photographers. Its philosophy is to accord dignity and recognition to the art of photography and maintain the rights of its practitioners. But the long-term aims are wider: to promote lesser known work by high profile photographers as well as the work of up and coming photographers, to provide a valuable historical resource, to offer news on exhibitions and events and to provide links to other pertinent websites. The Rockarchive continues going from strength to strength, with international gallery spaces in the UK, Ireland and Holland. The latest gallery to launch is on the world famous Kings Road in Chelsea, UK and offers exclusive ŒArtist Proof and ŒEnd of Edition' images. Acknowledgments: With special thanks to: Tommy Hilfiger Canada for their generous support of the Toronto and Montreal exhibitions. David Saltz for his support in sponsoring the Las Vegas, Miami and New York
City Madison Square Garden Exhibitions. Past Shows:
Press/Reviews (click city name for additional information)NationwideAmerican Photo on Book 6.7.07 American Photo on Book 6.7.07 | |||||||||||||||
Toronto +
Links to press articles: TORONTO (CP) - An exhibition of photographs at the Edward Day Gallery shows
behind-the-scenes images of British supergroup the Police in cities around
the world. The photos are among those in Summers's new book, also titled "I'll Be Watching You" (Taschen). "It really is a behind-the-scenes perspective of that era," said Kelly McCray, co-director of the gallery. "He has a good eye, a good perspective. ... You've got images of the fans and you've got images of sort of the darker sides as well, where I think there's a contemplation of what success is." One "incredible" image in the show, titled "Starstruck," shows a mob of fans waiting for autographs as the group prepares to exit from a limo, said McCray. "Their eyes are just glazed over, and you can just see the expression in their faces - it's like . . . I've reached God." The exhibition has been following the group on tour and appeared earlier this year in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami. Future stops include London, Paris, New York, Copenhagen and Tokyo. "I'll Be Watching You" continues at the Edward Day Gallery until Aug. 14. Admission is free. On the web: Los Angeles +
Links to press articles: "When you're traveling around in a large entourage and being in a group where you're supposed to share ideas, photography was a way for me to have autonomy over my own universe," Summers said Monday by phone from his Los Angeles home, where he was packing as the band — Summers, Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland — prepares to hit the road again for its highly successful reunion tour. Having amassed almost 25,000 images from his time on the road, Summers collated them and boxed them away in his attic. The images remained hidden for nearly 20 years, until a friend suggested Summers pull together his impressive collection. So out of the dust came the aptly titled book "I'll Be Watching You: Inside the Police 1980-83," the recently released work Summers compiled that blends hundreds of his pictures with dated journal entries. "We're all fans of the Police, and there's so much mystery surrounding the time the band ceased to function together," said Nina Wiener, who edited the Taschen book. "The book gives us that inside access, and the real shocker is what a great photographer Andy is." Taschen recently distributed 1,500 signed and numbered limited-edition copies of the book worldwide, attached with a lofty $400 price tag. In October, a smaller coffee-table version with identical content will retail for $39.99. The images certainly feed the pervasive sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll stereotype. Among them: a crazed fan attempting to score an autograph through the band's limo window, a maid offering room service, a naked girl stretched out beside a guitar and Sting luxuriating like a god in a glistening body of water. "Do you hate touring or love it? The meat grinder of hell or the heaven of adoration?" Summers writes in one entry, dated Dec. 3, 1982. "But the fact that 'they' are thrilled to see you — with their 50,000 faces turned in your direction every night — you become part of the bacchanalia…. You shrug and then leap like a rabid dog on to the stage." "I wanted the book to have the quality that you're on the inside and everyone else is looking at you," Summers said of the compilation. "You're below them, and they're looking down at you all the time." Graying former groupies, cowboy boot-clad hippies and a handful of celebrities turned out at Santa Monica's Bergamot Station on Friday night to catch a glimpse of 32 black-and-white pictures from the book, which will be exhibited at the Frank Pictures Gallery until July 13. "I wanted the exhibit to reflect that rock 'n' roll lifestyle," Summers said Friday, as he stood in the center of the room wearing a cool black jacket. "I couldn't have it all be straight. I wanted to show the uh, width of the experience," he joked, pointing to an image of a woman's curvaceous body. "I see the paparazzi all have fast motor drives and shoot many pictures to find one that will work," he added, motioning toward the numerous photographers surrounding him. "My method is much, much slower. I'm like a hunter creeping up on a deer through the forest, waiting for the right moment." Lead singer Sting recalled Summers' camera as a constant presence on tour. "I sort of got used to having Andy's camera in my face," Sting said. "His photos were more candid, nothing like those awful photo sessions that I hate." "It just feels like so long ago when I look at these," said Copeland. "I was a 25-year-old kid. That was the old Police who aren't connected to who we are at all now. We're all older and wiser, totally the same people, but our foibles have been cast in stone." Jeremy Piven, who plays harsh agent Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage," said he intended to buy two of Summers' photos, including one of Copeland drumming, which he plans to hang above his own drum set. "It's like the way Hunter S. Thompson wrote," Piven said. "Through Andy's photos, we suddenly get to see the belly of the beast and be on tour. It's real art." Summers, 64, will continue to lug his heavy equipment across the globe on the current tour, finding a creative outlet through photography and writing. "I have to write in my journal or I start to lose it," he said. "Particularly right now, when there's so much furor around the Police tour. You meet so many new people and get lost in the sea of events, so you have to write it down so you don't forget what it was." Though the backstage folly may have evaporated, the band insists being back on the road hasn't changed discernibly. "A lot of it's really the same," Summers said. "It's completely comfortable to me. It was much stranger not being in the band, actually, because the experience we went through was very intense and vivid. It imprinted deeply and doesn't just fluff out a few months later." "I'm a much truer man, and no one is throwing TVs out of windows now," Sting said with a smile. "It kind of feels like mom and dad got back together; it's a warm feeling. My instincts were perfect."
And only “Extra” is with Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers at a private showing of Andy’s classic Police photos in L.A., where they discuss life on the road – the second time around. “Everything is different, but nothing has changed,” said Stewart. “I think it’s like Mom and Dad getting back together again,” Sting added. “It’s like riding a bike,” Andy insisted. “What was weird was the bit in between where we weren’t playing together.” Sting decided to call up the band and reignite old flames in order to make music once again. It was a decision that’s now resulting in sold-out arenas! “I was thinking, ‘What would I do to surprise people? What would I do to surprise myself?’ So I called the guys up they didn't believe it either,” Sting recalled. But he managed to gather the boys, even though they risked those notorious clashes again. “We navigate better than we used to,” Sting said. “You know, we used to be at each other’s throats.” Twenty years later, things have definitely changed! “We're all really fond of each other and have been ever since day one 30 years ago,” insisted Stewart. “We’re just opposite, and we groove on it.” “We're a little more grounded,” Andy agreed. “We've all had children since then. I think having children is very grounding.” “We have teenage children,” Stewart said. “And when you've raised teenage children, that makes it easier to deal with bass players.” Twenty years and several kids later, Sting says things have changed a lot for him, too. “I’m very shy,” Sting insisted. Sting, shy? The same man who had women throwing panties at him for years? He can’t possibly get over that! Added Sting, “Having panties thrown at me? No, I like it.” Still a rock star! Boston +
Links to press articles: "Check out the The July Seen -- Boston.com and Bill Brett's photos Las Vegas +
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