“I’m a photographer moonlighting as a singer,” Bryan Adams once said. By the early 1980s, Adams already had a camera in tow wherever he went, capturing images of life on the road and backstage but kept his “hobby” a secret for years until the ’90s, when he began shooting self-portraits for his album covers and worked on a feature for Marie Claire UK.
“The more I did it, the more confidence I got in my own work,” said Adams, “so I just started taking things into my own hands.”
From then on, Adams went on to shoot dozens of artists and album covers, along with other projects and campaigns, and is sharing a collection of his iconic images during an exhibition in Nashville, Tennessee, presented by the Morrison Hotel Gallery, on view from November 9 through December 7.
Held at 620 8th Ave. South, the Shot by Adams exhibit will showcase a collection of Adams’ iconic images throughout the decades.
“Bryan’s approach to printmaking is as distinctive as his eye,” said Nick Bonomo, COO of Morrison Hotel Gallery, in a statement. “These works possess a rare physicality and depth. No one else is creating prints quite like this.”
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In 2000, Adams was one of the chosen photographers to photograph Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee. For decades, he has also worked behind the lens shooting Mick Jagger, The Who, Ray Charles, Iggy Pop, Muhammed Ali, Cher, Rod Stewart, Shania Twain, Bryan Ferry, Die Antwood, Lenny Kravitz, Lana Del Rey, Morrissey, Arcade Fire, Take That, Robert Plant, Sarah McLachlan, Billy Idol, Celine Dion, St. Vincent, Lindsay Lohan, and Jennifer Hudson, along with other campaigns.
Adams also shot several album covers, including Amy Winehouse’s posthumous 2011 release Lioness: Hidden Treasures, Annie Lennox’s 2009 compilation, The Annie Lennox Collection, Status Quo’s Aquostic – Stripped Bare from 2014, and Diana Krall’s 2015 album Wallflower.
In 2022, Adams also shot the cover for German industrial metal band Rammstein’s eighth album Zeit. For the cover, Adams shot the band standing on the steps of the Trudelturm in Berlin, Adlershof, a monument to aerial research in the Aerodynamic Park in the city.
A decade earlier Adams released his first book of photography, Exposed, in 2012, and his work has been published in Interview magazine, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, British GQ, British Vogue, L’uomo Vogue, and Vanity Fair, among others, along with ad campaigns for Jaguar, Escada, Montblanc, Schwarzkopf, Ermenegildo Zegna, Guess Jeans, Converse, and more.
The Shot by Adams collection will be shown by appointment only (by calling 615.583.7853), and will be available online.
Photo: Bryan Adams at the 55th consecutive show of Billy Joel’s residency at Madison Square Garden on August 23, 2018, in New York City. (Myrna M. Suarez/Getty Images)
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