Hit them with your best shots

AN album cover so cool and colorful, you bought the record without even hearing the music. A poster of your idols so mesmerizing, it stayed on your bedroom walls for years. A photograph from a concert that crackled with the energy of the live performance. A magazine shot of a backstage moment so raw and intimate that you scrapbooked it.

The power of imagery in music is taken for granted by many, but not the avid rock fan. Coupled with the music itself, these kinds of visual representations can have a magical, even transforming effect, especially for youngsters. They definitely did for music industry jack-of-all-trades Bobby Carlton. His appreciation for every facet of rock made him a success in several industry fields, but these days he’s cast that aside to pursue his real passion: music-inspired art and photography.

Carlton’s new space, the Shooting Gallery, which is devoted to exhibitions by and of musicians, opens tonight amid a buzz of attention to rock photography.

“Icons of Rock,” featuring high-end work by heavyweights George Rose, Ethan Russell and Baron Wolman, opens tonight at the Duncan Miller Gallery in West L.A. And last week at the Memphis Cafe in Costa Mesa, “Visual Reverb: Music Imagery by Jeanne Rice” went up.

With his gallery, Carlton aims to conjure the creative excitement of New York’s late-’70s art scene, where sound and vision collided in a way that was inspiring, and even a little dangerous.

“I squatted in real shooting galleries growing up,” the 45-year-old New York City native says of the notorious drug dens that inspired his gallery’s name. “Funny thing is, that’s where I first got a real appreciation for art. All the beautiful things that life had to offer while I was living this kind of dismal existence.”

That contrast -- dark and light, joy and pain, beauty and ugliness -- has always been an innate part of rock ‘n’ roll. Carlton’s opening show, featuring the works of Richard E. Aaron and Kevin Estrada, illustrates this duality in stark fashion. It’s no coincidence that many of the musicians depicted in the exhibit have either died or struggled with drugs or personal demons.

The work of Aaron, 57, depicts the likes of Bob Marley, Paul McCartney, Jerry Garcia, the Rolling Stones and Peter Frampton (he took the famous “Frampton Comes Alive” album shot). Estrada, 39, has shot newer bands, such as Motley Crue and Jane’s Addiction, as well as legends such as Johnny Cash and David Bowie.

Aaron and Estrada both have a gift for connecting with their subjects, but each approaches his work in a different way.

“I never became a fan of my subjects; I would not buy the records or listen to the music. I was always into classical and jazz,” says Aaron, who started out in New York shooting editorial photos for magazines and then publicity shots for record companies. “I really never cared about hanging out with stars. I had the opportunity, but after I did the shoot I’d go home. My cameras and my lenses were my friends. My darkroom was where I lived. You know how they say, ‘I wish I was a fly on the wall’? Well, I’m the fly.”

Estrada, on the other hand, was an obsessive follower of rock music, so much so that he actually got his start by smuggling his camera into L.A. metal shows he frequented as a kid, selling shots to pals at school and stadium parking lots before shows.

“It was like an addiction for me,” says Estrada, who got his first big break as a teenager after being the only photographer to get images at a particularly riotous hard-core gig at the Country Club in Reseda. “I got beat up, came home with black eyes, cracked head, chopped-up back, broken nose and broken equipment at shows all the time, but it was the only thing that excited me.”

The Shooting Gallery exhibitions will mark the first public showings for both photographers.

THE “Icons of Rock” show features 45 images of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Who from a trio of shooters with, as gallery owner Daniel Miller points out, “staggering resumes.”

“We did a lot of research into the iconic photography that captured the era, some of the most documentary, in-the-moment type work,” says Miller, who culled some 600 images from about 25 photographers. “It was important it have a strong lineage.”

In Orange County, the work of Rice captures subjects as varied as U2 and Dick Dale, and some of O.C.’s other big success stories -- including Social Distortion’s Mike Ness and Gwen Stefani, both of which fit into the lively space’s neighborhood feel.

O.C. native Rice, who’s shot for magazines such as Rolling Stone and Britain’s NME, actually got her start documenting the local punk scene. “It’s such a powerful medium,” she says. “A lot of it’s being in the right spot at the right time, but even then if you don’t have it in your blood, it’s not going to happen. You only have one chance to get it right.”

Indeed, it seems to be the very challenges -- time constraints (these days, cameras are usually allowed to shoot only the first few songs at concerts), rock star egos, overzealous fans -- that make things interesting, both for the shooter and the viewer.

Aaron and Estrada say they’ve had some disappointing encounters (Aaron cites Queen and Kenny Rogers as difficult, while Estrada won’t reveal names but recalls one of his guitar idols who was so high on heroin he canceled a shoot midway through), but for the most part, both report positive experiences, especially when they’ve been asked to go on tour with artists.

Aaron toured with the Sex Pistols (“the nicest fellas,” he says), Fleetwood Mac, KISS and others while Estrada (who parlayed his love of rock into a brief stint scouting and developing talent) has lived with -- and documented daily -- the likes of the Cure and Nirvana.

“There’s nothing like shooting music,” Estrada says. “My hands still turn clammy sometimes before a show. I love that energy and that adrenaline.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Carlton, who hopes his gallery, adjacent to the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard, will be a place not just for looky-loos and fans but for participants as well. He plans to offer a poetry night, called “Read,” in a few months with metal singer Otep Shamaya and, of course, party-like openings featuring music-world luminaries.

“I want it to be place where people can hang out and be inspired,” Carlton says. “It’s great. I don’t have to work with bands anymore, but I get to sit and stare at them all day.”

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Lina Lecaro may be reached at weekend@latimes.com. Staff writer Kevin Bronson contributed to this report.

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Duncan Miller Gallery

What: “Icons of Rock” with the work of George Rose, Ethan Russell and Baron Wolman

Where: 10959 Venice Blvd., L.A.

When: Opens today. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Ends July 30.

Info: (310) 838-2440; www.duncanmillergallery.com

The Shooting Gallery

What: Grand opening featuring the work of Richard E. Aaron and Kevin Estrada

Where: 7403 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood

When: Opens today. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays; 2 to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Ends mid-August.

Info: (323) 882-8340; www.theshootinggallery.org

Memphis Cafe

What: “Visual Reverb: Music Imagery by Jeanne Rice”

Where: 2920 Bristol St., Costa Mesa

When: Cafe open for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch; hours vary. Exhibit ends Sept. 30.

Info: (714) 432-7685; www.memphiscafe.com