Raw Power: Iggy & the Stooges

""I have a kind of reclusive personality,"" says Iggy Pop of himself in an interview with Mick Rock recorded in 1972. Coming from the least inhibited performer in rock and roll, this statement is striking, and Rock's photographs do nothing to support Pop's self-evaluation. Rock, a widely published photographer, was on hand for a July 1972 concert at London's La Scala Theatre, and first published his photos in book form over thirty years ago. This volume is an updated version of the original, the name of which is drawn from the seminal album Iggy & The Stooges had come to England to record. (Pop was also drying out from ""a year of drug addiction. Very heavily into it."") Much of Rock's writing is overwrought, but the book isn't about the words, it's about the photographs, and the photographs are brilliant. Shot backstage and onstage, before, during and after the concert, the photos convey a raw intimacy and immediacy: Pop epitomizes androgyny in his mascara, lipstick and sequined silver drainpipe pants. The book looks and feels like a family album; text from the 1972 interview and a foreword by Pop lend depth to the volume.