August 7-13, 2003

artpicks

Phil Ceccola's Springsteen Photographs

Art

Every scene needs a historian, somebody prescient enough to take notes before anyone else knows to look. Although the burgeoning folkies and singer/songwriters who played the tiny stage at The Main Point in Bryn Mawr back in the early '70s had yet to sweep the nation off its feet, photographer Phil Ceccola sensed he was in the midst of something special. So he pointed his Pentax 35mm at the likes of Jackson Browne, David Lindley and Bruce Springsteen, and clicked. (A former managing editor for alternative newspaper The Drummer, he kindly lent City Paper a brilliant shot of Tom Waits in the Main Point lobby for our Music Issue last year.) The Boss, then a sweat-soaked, bearded twentysomething, was Ceccola's "guinea pig," the main focus for the rock photographer learning his trade. Over the years his pictures of the young Springsteen became legend, gracing the cover of Rolling Stone and the 18 Tracks compilation CD. Long after The Main Point shut its doors, Ceccola continued snapping photos of Elton John, Michael Jackson, Rick Springfield and Elvis Presley. Last month the 48-year-old photographer lost a three-year battle with brain cancer. Coinciding with the Boss' three concerts at the Linc this weekend, a collection of Ceccola's finest Springsteen shots will be exhibited and sold, with the proceeds going toward a trust fund for his two daughters.

Phil Ceccola’s Springsteen Photographs, through Sept. 30, Orbit, 4312 Main St., 215-508-6728 or e-mail theinfo@comcast.net.

—Patrick Rapa