Lou Reed Gets His Photo On

Rather than, say, chasing the white women around or even snaring a studio engineer to, um, "help" him record sad, snide commentaries on American life, Reed is busy doing a busload of things that have nothing to do with waiting for The Man, whoever The Man may be now that dude's nearly 64 years old.

With zip new studio output since 2004's The Raven, Reed's been expressing himself through other mediums. Like his Spanish Fly: Lou Reed Live in Spain DVD that came out last year, or the just-released DVD version of the Velvet Underground's reunion concert, Live MCMXCIII. (Check out Reed's worst worst haircut since Sally Can't Dance in that last one.)

But mostly, the guy that Laurie Anderson shares her money with and that "discovered" Antony has mostly been taking pictures. Lotsa pictures. And with his new Steidl/Edition 7L imprint book, Lou Reed's New York (not to be confused with New York, the record with him standing in front of a wall), Reed the photog has been out in full force.

New York City's the Gallery at Hermès will host a book-signing this Saturday afternoon, February 4, to kick off an exhibition of Reed's photos that will adorn the gallery's walls until February 25.

Lou had this to say about the pix: "This is organic photography, a recording of the city's celestial light show-the blazing changes from dawn to dusk across the Hudson-an everyday recording of the majestic flowing sky and waters produced by a deity of such endless talent and originality that a photographer can only snap, focus, and pray that this or that camera, lens, digital back, and all the technical advances coming by the minute can somehow capture a fragment of the quickly shifting magnitude being presented for the inspiration of anyone looking."

That, my friends, is one hell of a run-on sentence.

As previously reported, Reed will play a pair of February dates in New York before jetting to Turin, Italy to play a gig at the Winter Olympics. He will then compete in the speed skating event, before heading out for a brief tour.

European son:

02-11 Poughkeepsie, NY - Bardavon Opera House
02-13 New York, NY - Crobar
02-23 Turin, Italy - Piazza Castello (Winter Olympics)
02-24 Florence, Italy - Teatro Verdi
02-25 Mantua, Italy - PalaBam
02-27 Milan, Italy - Teatro Nazionale
02-28 Piacenza, Italy - Palabanca
03-01 Rome, Italy - Parco della Musica
03-03 Perugia, Italy - Teatro Comunale
03-04 Ravenna, Italy - Pala De Andrè<br> 03-05 Teramo, Italy - Teatro Comunale
03-07 Catania, Italy - Teatro Metropolitan
03-09 Naples, Italy - PalaPartenope
03-11 Crans-Montana, Switzerland - Caprices Festival
03-12 Pordenone, Italy - Teatro Verdi
03-13 Ljubljana, Slovenia - Hala Tivoli
03-15 Belgrade, Serbia - Sava Centre
03-17 Prague, Czech Republic - Concert House

Special bonus prize: go HERE to see a funny photo of Lou, Laurie, Antony, David Bowie, Jimmy Scott...and Bette Midler.

Lou Reed: http://www.loureed.com/