Being Michael Stipe

RollingStone Music book of the month / Aug 2008

David Belisle has captured R.E.M.'s life on the road - artfully and surprisingly private.

Following a band's every step is a highly sensitive business, even more so with a band that is notoriously careful and does not appreciate too much prying. This is especially true when all you want to do is take pictures all the time. Being friends with the band helps - as well as being discreet. As Michael Stipe puts it in the foreword to "Hello": "Often the clicking of his Leica is so quiet that he has probably taken pictures for a long time before anybody realizes he even holds his camera." Belisle has been on the road with R.E.M. for six years, on stage and back stage. He has become the singer's personal assistant, most of all, however, an excellent photographer. More than 150 shots (with hand written captions by the musicians) in this abundant book prove this fact. What surprises is not the impressive concert-shots, not the cultivated ennui on the tour-bus, not the meetings with Thom Yorke, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. What really does astound is the band's willingness to actually reveal their private lives: There's Stipe posing with his dog in front of his Athens, Ga., house, then it's him inside in front of two elephants-heads-pictures. Next to a live-shot Peter Buck's daugthers scribble: "How high can you fly? Dad doing one of his crazy high kicks." Employees, family and friends turn up, often without any further explanation. Probably this is because R.E.M. assume that their fans know everybody inside their cosmos anyway. At the end of the book Belisle writes: "My love and respect belong to the band." That's exactly what distinguishes "Hello" from lots of other, oftentimes dull and distanced Rock-photo books. For once candidness has actually paid off, yet still leaving the myth intact.

• (4.5 out of 5)
• Review by Birgit Fuß [translated from German]
• Review Date: August 2008