Bill Wyman talks about his photos
© AFP/File Maartje Blijdenstein ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands (AFP) - Wyman's images are on show for the first time in Europe in an exhibition that runs until the end of October in a gallery in the Dutch port city. They are mostly scenes from his rock star life but also more recent landscapes and portraits of artists like painter Marc Chagall.
Looking through the 70 pictures, chosen from a portfolio of some 20,000, is like leafing through a family album.
"I remember. Mick got up and wanted to get himself a drink, a scotch or something like that. It must have tasted bad, look at the face he has!" Wyman said about a picture of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger in profile pulling a face at a half full glass.
"I really took him at that moment, you can't pose for this kind of picture," Wyman told AFP.
During the interview Wyman, 69, a small man with streaked grey hair and blue tinted glasses, only shows real enthusiasm when discussing technique and analogue versus digital with the AFP photographer who was there to take his picture.
Next to the former bass player hangs a 1968 picture of a boyish looking John Lennon, dressed in an oversized jeans jacket, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
Another image shows The Who drummer Keith Moon in profile. A little further down is Ringo Starr, with a big smile and big sunglasses, arching over a balcony to look at Wyman who took the picture from another balcony.
"Wherever I went, I took my camera with me. I liked to stand back, in a corner of the room for instance and shoot the people's expression without them noticing it," Wyman explained, gin tonic in one hand, a lit cigarette in the other.
"I don't like it when people pose, as you can see they nearly never look at the camera. I like it when they are natural."
Wyman was in the Rolling Stones for 30 years as a bass player. Then in 1993 he quit. Always a little in the shadow of the group's big stars Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, he became more of an observer.
On tour, while recording albums during get togethers in his house in Saint Paul de Vence in southern France: "I was shooting everywhere, all the time".
He kept entry tickets, post cards, bills and scribbled notes.
"Collecting things, that's my whole being. That's also what I love in archaeology," said Wyman, who published part of his memoirs in the form of collages accompanied by extracts from his diaries.
Now his drive to record events in his life is paying off: the gallery demands up to 2,300 euros (2,915 dollars) for his pictures.
"I didn't do it for the money, it wasn't a business," Wyman said.
"But, now I realize they are very valuable. ...It's the idea that what you experience will soon become past and that it could get forgotten."
Remembering what happened before the picture of Keith Richards sitting in the Stones' office with a black eye.
"That's in 1966, Chuck Berry had just punched him," Wyman recalls.
Or the intimate pictures of painter Marc Chagall with his wife showing their close relationship through their conspiratory glances.
"In Saint Paul de Vence, we were neighbours and friends. He was a good man and loved nature, just like me," explained Wyman.
"Take a look at these landscapes. People want rock pictures because they sell better, what I really love is this sunset. Look here, this is in Hawaii, I took this picture of the beach from inside a stone cave."
"I only do nature pictures now, what I would really love to do is to take pictures for National Geographic magazine".
"Wyman Shoots" in on show at V!P's International Art Galleries in Rotterdam until October 29 (www.vipsart.nl).
©AFP