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Brian
Rose
Biography
 I
grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, the restored 18th century town. I played
music with the Colonial Williamsburg fife and drum corps, and had the
distinction, dubious or not, of performing for Presidents Johnson and
Nixon. I began taking photographs at age 16, and picked up a guitar at
18. I eventually landed in New York City at Cooper Union where I studied
photography with Joel Meyerowitz and Larry Fink. I began hanging out in
New York folk clubs where I met Jack Hardy, Suzanne Vega, and many other
songwriters. I was co-founder in 1982, with Jack, of the Fast Folk Musical
Magazine, originally called The Coop. And many of my songs were recorded
on the record/magazine over the years.
Since then
I have split my time between photography and music. In 1991, I recorded
an album--available only via my website--which was produced by Suzanne,
My photographs of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain are in the collections
of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and my
documentary and architectural photography has been published in magazines
and books.
I currently
travel back and forth between New York and Amsterdam (where I'm married
to Dutch urban planner Renée Schoonbeek). And though my heart is
pulled this way and that between family and friends, I remain steadfastly,
a New Yorker.
Brian Rose
February, 2002
For
more info on Brian, please visit his website: www.BrianRose.com
Also
see: Brian's
WTC photo gallery on this website;
Brian's
Interview with a newspaper in the Czech Republic;
Brian and
Ina May Wool's report from The Goethe-Institue Panel Discussion;
and a Report on Brian's trip to Prague
and Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Comments
about 'The Skyline':
Brian
Rose is an architectural photographer who has photographed many aspects
of New York City, including the Word Trade Center. He sings about the
damaged skyline here, how it will never be the same, how this has changed
him personally
-
Suzanne Vega
'The
Skyline'
[ mp3 sound clip ]
The
city my arrow, my compass and grid
The map of my palm and the secrets I hid
We were believers, the brightest and best
Uptown Downtown East Side and West
Now
the streets are crooked and I've lost my way
In the glitter of rain in the lights of Broadway
In this aimless daze I am worthless and lame
As I sift through the ashes the pictures and names
I
look away, I see, avoid
Shards of glass and falling stars
The skyline in your face
The skyline and its scar
Here
is New York where all is desire
Zeppelins moored to the highest spires
The city, my city, of love and of power
Of high wire acts between the Twin Towers
Turn
back the soldiers turn back the hands
Take me back to the place where nothing now stands
Take me back to the moment take me back to before
Let me revel again where skyscrapers soared
chorus
Give
me the songs give me all the clichés
They're all that I've got to get through the day
Here is New York in black and in blue
From the Staten Island Ferry where I first kissed you
chorus
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