ROME, ITALY.- Legendary musician Lou Reed shows his photographs for the first time in Rome’s unosunove Gallery. Lou Reed’s exhibitions, titled “New York,” feature over 50 photographs of the city that has been the fulcrum of Reed’s creative world for decades. Reed has created a symphony of light and color. These deeply personal pictures, many shot from Reed’s own apartment windows, include the play of light as the sun sets over the Hudson River and a selection of idiosyncratic self-portraits. The exhibitions are concurrent with the release of the second book of Lou Reed’s photographs, titled Lou Reed’s New York.

“Two years and many cameras and lenses later, these images are the result of a small attempt to share the beauty that has bedazzled the consciousness of this viewer standing on the edge of the river with a box in hand trying to catch the lightning bolt of time. 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.”—Lou Reed

The legendary musician will describe and tell the story of the city he loves with 55 pictures. The LOU REED’S NEW YORK exhibition will be part of the Fifth Photo Festival of Rome. The Fotografia 2006 festival will take place from April 4 until May 31.