Stevie Nicks has announced she will display a gallery of self-portraits in New York next month. The presentation, which will take place at the Morrison Hotel Gallery, is entitled “24 Karat Gold.” This is also the name of her upcoming album, which is set to release on October 7th, 2014 and will include a special edition book of the retro selfies.
The Fleetwood Mac singer snapped the Polaroid photos of herself between 1975 and 1987 when she was experimenting with photography. “I did everything,” she says. “I was the stylist, the makeup artist, the furniture mover, the lighting director — it was my joy. I was the model.” Nicks recently dug up the historic photos from old shoeboxes. The pictures that will be displayed at “24 Karat Gold” were handpicked from the bunch by Dave Stewart, the Eurythmics guitarist who co-produced her 2011 album, “In Your Dreams.”
In the photos, Nicks explored different props, costumes, and lighting late into the night, balancing the interest with her busy tour schedule. “I wanted to learn how to become a photographer, and I don’t sleep at night,” she explained. “So I thought, who am I going to ask to stay up all night, and then do a show tomorrow? I’m not going to get Christine [McVie, also of Fleetwood Mac]. She’s going to say, ‘Are you crazy? I’m going to the bar. Bye.’”
Her nocturnal hobby continued for over a decade, until the Polaroids became “almost impossible to use.” She said it became more and more challenging to find film, and her cameras fell into disrepair. The photos she filed away for so many years have never been revealed to the public before. But Nicks is not the only one in the business of selfies. Kim Kardashian is soon to publish a 352-page book of them, entitled, Selfish. Although, hers were probably not taken as a means of studying photographic techniques.
You can catch Stevie Nicks’ secret shots at 201 Mulberry Street on October 10th and 11th. The show will then move to the Morrison Hotel Gallery at 116 Prince Street on October 13th, where it will run for the rest of the month.