Eric Antoniou's music photography: when open eyes meet open ears

Boston Globe

09-05-2025

'On any given night,' the Boston-based photographer has said, 'I could go from photographing Seiji Ozawa at Symphony Hall to shooting River Phoenix at
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Neither Ozawa nor Phoenix shows up at Panopticon. A whole lot of other musical people do. Among them are multiple local heroes: Peter Wolf, Aerosmith, Dropkick Murphys, Morphine, Donna Summer, Leonard Bernstein (born in Lawrence; Boston Latin, '35). There are also such notable out-of-towners as Johnny Cash, Sting, Sonny Rollins, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Dizzy Gillespie, and Mick Jagger.
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Jagger's is one of three color photographs in the show; the others are of Summer and David Byrne. Antoniou has captured a marvelous in-performance moment, with Jagger's hands clasped, prayer-like. What makes it even more marvelous is that next to the photograph is the one of Bernstein. At least for some of us, that juxtaposition summons a certain famous Stephen Sondheim line from a certain famous
It's the musician subjects who matter — although with one of the pictures it's a band's fans who matter, that band being Green Day. But part of the fun of 'Rock to Baroque' is looking beyond the faces to note various musicianly appurtenances. Some are to be expected. Wolf, Bono, and Yoko Ono wear sunglasses. Wolf's are the best looking, Bono's the most theatrical, Yoko's the most … formidable.
There are lots of hats: Wolf again; Dizzy; Waits; Junior Wells, who seems to be swallowing his blues harp; Aerosmith's Tom Hamilton. Morphine's Dana Colley and Billy Conway have their heads covered, but not Mark Sandman. One of the Dropkicks wears a scally cap (a kilt, too). Dewey Redman has what appears to be a toque atop his head. But the headgear is easy to miss, since what stands out is the look he's exchanging with his bare-headed son, and fellow tenor saxophonist, Joshua, as they duet.
Some of the appurtenances are most definitely not to be expected: a bullhorn (Waits), a snazzy scarf (Bernstein), an apple (Yoko), a headband so elaborate it verges on tiara (a magisterial Bunny Wailer).
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There is much else of note. Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong offers an extended middle finger — to the audience, not Antoniou. The tight framing around the face of James Cotton makes his expression seem all the more haunted. Who knew that Leonard Cohen, seen performing, and Philip Glass, posing for his portrait, look enough alike to be cousins?
There's one complaint to make about the show. The photos lack dates, whereas many of those in Antoniou's book have them. 'Who,' 'how,' and 'what' take priority here, obviously; but 'when' would be welcome, too.
The only one of Antoniou's subjects to make more than one appearance is Dizzy Gillespie. On Panopticon's Wall Gallery, Devo gets five. Two are by Allan Tanenbaum, with the others taken by Ebet Roberts, Neal Preston, and Richard Alden Peterson. Captions note that 'Purchase of prints includes exclusive VIP meet & greet with DEVO.' It's unclear whether 'VIP' refers to prospective purchaser or presented band.
All of Antoniou's photographs have people in them, obviously, and all except for the shots of Morphine and the Dropkicks were taken indoors. This makes for a fundamental contrast with Joseph Levendusky's 22 photographs in 'A Sense of Place.' It runs through June 27 at the Paul Dietrich Gallery, which is in the offices of the architectural firm CambridgeSeven.
Levendusky likes to shoot at magic hour, that time at dawn or dusk when light is at its softest and most forgiving, and these very handsome color photographs all but glow. Most show human handwork — downtown Providence, the Northern Avenue Bridge, a gingerbread Victorian, in Bennington, Vt. — but only two include actual humans.
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That absence gives the images an arresting purity. They have a consistent look — clean unto pristine — which means the most arresting are of sites and structures that are anything but pristine: a decrepit wooden house, in Adams, say, or a ghost sign on a brick warehouse, in Chelsea. Levendusky's camera makes of decay a thing of wonder. Rust never sleeps, the saying goes. Here it can be seen to dream.
ERIC ANTONIOU: ROCK TO BAROQUE — Four Decades of Music Photography
At Panopticon Gallery, 502c Commonwealth Ave. (inside the Hotel Commonwealth), through June 30. 781-740-1300,
A SENSE OF PLACE: Photographs by Joseph Levendusky
At Paul Dietrich Gallery at CambridgeSeven, 20 University Road, third floor, through June 27. 617-492-7000,
Mark Feeney can be reached at