Nick Zinner’s art exhibition, “It’s OK, Don’t Look at the Road,” consists of a series of photography on display at the Fuse Gallery in New York City through September 13th. I wandered into Fuse, a grungy bar/professional gallery hybrid located in the East Village, knowing little about their current show save for the vague understanding that it consisted of photography. I certainly did not realize that it was the photography of Nick Zinner — the lead guitarist of art-punk trio The Yeah Yeah Yeahs — until I happened upon a press release in the gallery corner. Even to an innocent eye, however, Zinner’s photography speaks clearly of the perks of a rock and roll lifestyle –- parties, drugs, fans, travel, as well as the pitfalls.

Technically speaking, the photographs themselves are pretty standard — while they are certainly not bad, there are no amazing shots to inspire awe with their sheer technical skill. Instead, the photographs appeal with their snapshot-like glimpse into Zinner’s experiences on the road — sometimes fun, sometimes lonely. A piece titled Broken Bus shows a small group of men and women, presumably the band and their crew, pushing their tour bus along a deserted road against a mountainous landscape. Another photograph, depicts a young woman in a red gingham dress looking out of a hotel window toward a sea of billboards and skyscrapers. The dim lighting and muted colors give the scene a bleak appearance, despite the sunny weather she peers at.

A series of small pictures, titled simply Beds, are perhaps the most moving images in the show. Each of the 150+ photographs depicts a hotel bed Zinner stayed in, along with the corresponding city, month, and year it was taken, from 2002 to 2008.  Occasionally a bed looks as though it might be from a person’s home the band stayed at while touring. Los Angeles, February 2005 appears to be a futon, and some of the beds, such as those in San Francisco or Bali, have more character than others. Still, when looking at such a large group of them together, the beds all look more or less the same, and such a vast collection of sparse walls and white sheets is a dismal sight indeed.

There are more cheerful photographs in the exhibition, certainly. A girl with a flowered shirt and a blue pill on her tongue smiles at the camera in Pill. Make Out LA shows a hot and heavy couple going at it by a festive statue decked out in tinsel and a hat. A line of dancers in red short-shorts line the frame in the aptly titled Dancers. And then there are the crowds: Melbourne Crowd, Munich Crowd, Kansas Crowd, Red Crowd, etc. This series depicts crowds of fans staring, cheering, and reaching toward the camera. Few of us will have the opportunity to stand on that side of a cheering mob of people, and the photographs cast an unnerving feeling –- each and every one of those fans are waiting and expecting something, staring at the camera with hungry eyes. The isolation of fame is a theme often commented on within pop-culture, but seeing it expressed in photography is somehow more moving than, say, watching an episode of VH1 Behind the Music, perhaps because it allows viewers to draw their own conclusions.

“I have become more fascinated with the ambiguity of an image,” Zinner himself states in his press release. “If you remove the facts and the dates and are just left with the image, that image to me is strongest, when each viewer can attach their own meaning to it.”

Zinner met singer Karen O while she was living in New York, and eventually the two combined with drummer Brian Chase to form The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The band released their first full-length album, Fever To Tell, in 2003 and enjoyed substantial commercial success afterwards. Their 2004 hit, “Maps,” eventually helped push Fever To Tell into gold status. If Zinner’s photographs serve as a means to document his experiences as a musician, they also serve as an invitation to draw viewers into that world. An overwhelming feeling of loneliness courses through the exhibition, as though the party images are just interesting snapshots along an endless trail of crumpled hotel sheets and nameless faces. “It’s OK, Don’t Look At The Road” is a contemplative peek into one musician’s travels and the ambiguous nature of fame.

Nick Zinner’s “It’s OK, Don’t Look At The Road” runs August 16th through September 13, 2008 at Fuse Gallery in New York City. More information can be found on the gallery’s website.

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