Emotion in Action

by Lou Reed

Lou Reed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and is a founding member of the legendary Velvet Underground. He began experimenting with photography in the 1990s and first exhibited his work in the 1997 group show Extended Play: Between Rock and an Art Space at the Boston University's Photographic Resource Center and later in Paris. His work has only briefly been seen since. Emotions is thus that rare book that displays virtually unknown work by a famous, familiar artist--it is very much Reed's first photo book. His work in other art fields has been well recognized, however: Reed has acted in and composed music for film and is the recipient of the Chevalier Commander of Arts and Letters from the French government. The author of Pass thru Fire and the play The Raven, Lou Reed lives in New York City.

Genres: Photography

112 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2003

About the author

Lou Reed was an influential American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He first came to prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground (1965-1973). The band gained little mainstream attention during their career, but in hindsight became one of the most influential of their era. As the Velvets’ principal songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined in rock and roll, including bondage and S&M ("Venus in Furs"), transvestites ("Sister Ray" and "Candy Says"), drug culture ("Heroin" and "I'm Waiting for the Man"), and transsexuals undergoing surgery ("Lady Godiva's Operation"). As a guitarist, he was a pioneer in the use of distortion, high volume feedback, and nonstandard tunings.

Reed began a long and eclectic solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", though for more than a decade Reed seemed to willfully evade the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him. One of rock's most volatile personalities, Reed's work as a solo artist has frustrated critics wishing for a return of The Velvet Underground. The most notable example is 1975's infamous double LP of recorded feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which Reed later commented, "no one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive." By the late 1980s, however, Reed had won wide recognition as an elder statesman of rock.