Peter Kjellerås - It's Only Rock'n'roll

Facts Peter Kjellerås (b. 1947) spent many years as a press photographer, including at Aftonbladet, before going freelance in 2007. Kjellerås has documented and covered hotspots, conflicts and wars, sweeping world events and huge sporting events, but also everyday scenes and places.

The focus of “It's only rock'n'roll” is, however, rock music and its biggest icons. Kjellerås has been close to artists such as Keith Richards, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, David Bowie and Iggy Pop, and many more, both backstage and onstage (sometimes quite literally, as the cover's Lou Reed shows). The book also includes a large number of photographs of Swedish artists (most of them of Ulf Lundell).

Some of the images have been manipulated afterward by the photographer himself, shifting abruptly from documentation to art. In some cases this works very well; in others, to my personal taste, it can look dated.

Kjellerås includes a number of texts about memorable photo sessions, but otherwise the images do the talking. The foreword is written by Lasse Anrell, who worked alongside Kjellerås at Aftonbladet for many years. A very fine photo book that could easily have been even thicker. Overall rating: 4.

Nils Ahnland / BTJ

THE BOOK IS IN ENGLISH.