Imagined Soundtracks
California Museum of Photography
June 5, 2025 to May 17, 2026
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What A Shame
Anaís Azul (b. 1995)
What a Shame is imagined as the song that the people in this photograph could be singing. I took the mouth shapes of 3 of the singers in the photo to inspire lyrics for the round that I composed. I envisioned the man in the back singing “Shame”, the man in the front saying “Oh” and the woman next to him singing “Love,” all of which are the beginning of each phrase of the round. Considering that this photo was taken in 1968, I thought about the Vietnam war and the connections between that time and the current Genocide in Gaza. The song they could have sung then, may be just as if not more relevant now.
Image: Ansel Adams, UCI.6.9, December, 1966/2024. Scan from original negative. Collection of the California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTS, 1987.0027.6.UCI.6.9