First three songs, no flash!

`First three songs, no flash', is the title of an exhibition by rock photographer Dimitri Hakke. From Wednesday 19 November 2008 till Sunday 4 January 2009 the bar-restaurant of the brand-new Rotterdam rock venue WATT will be the setting of 30-40 rock photographs. New live photos, but also portraits from the past fifteen years, will decorate the walls.
 
After exhibitions in e.g. the trendy Parisian gallery Colette, de Bijenkorf in Amsterdam, the Dutch Rock And Pop Institute, the central library of Rotterdam and a permanent photo wall in popvenue Rotown, is it now time for an expo in WATT.
The hard job of compressing hundreds of artists into an exhibition, is finally finished. The result has an emphasis on recent years: Iggy & The Stooges at the opening of WATT, Lowlands 2008, a recent shoot with Ziggi. `Classic shots' of the Rolling Stones, White Stripes, Killing Joke and Franz Ferdinand however also have a spot on the walls.
 
The title of the expo `First three songs, no flash', refers to the announcement photographers hear when they are getting ready in the front stage area to photograph the artist. Time or the lack of it, that's what it's all about in rock photography. If it's a live shot or a quick portrait backstage. Dealing with - frequently difficult- circumstances like bad light, short time, moody artists or managers, there lays the challenge.
 
During the Dynamo Open Air rock festival (1994) Dimitri Hakke took on this challenge for the first time. It became an ideal combination of two large passions: music and photography. Since then, he's been all around the stages. As a freelance photographer/journalist his current clients include: Live-XS, Fret, Lowlands Festival Daily newspaper, Redferns, Wegener, WFA and Dutchsound. In 2006, his work was incorporated in the collection of the Rockarchive, an international art gallery which exposes and sells classic rock photos. After the late Lex van Rossen (1950-2007) he is the second Dutch photographer whose work is sold in the gallery which manages work of photographers such as Mick Rock, Kevin Cummins, Bob Gruen and founder Jill Furmanovsky.
 
The exhibition `First three songs, no flash' is also the starting point to the year 2009, in which a photograph book is planned with work from 1994 up to 2009.
 
WATT café-restaurant ,
West- Kruiskade 26-28, 3014 AS Rotterdam
 
19 NOV 2008 - 4 JAN 2009,
Official opening Wednesday 19 November from 17u30-19u30.
 
Expo during opening hours in Watt-café. Entrance is free.