Music on ... Photography: Melissa Auf der Maur

Canada Summer Stadium Show

Photograph by Melissa Auf der Maur

Courtney Love performing the acoustic song "Northern Star" to a crowd of Canadians

"We were headlining a cross-Canada tour named 'The Edge Festival,' [and] this show was in Edmonton. This turned out to be our last tour together, and was my first cross-Canada tour ever."—Melissa Auf der Maur

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Self Portrait in TV, USA

Photograph by Melissa Auf der Maur

Melissa Auf der Maur on a bed, part of a Self Portraits in Hotel Rooms series

"I remember this was a day off in the South. I am wearing a pink tube top and capri pants. We were traveling very comfortably on a tour bus, so I had the luxury to lug around a lot of photography gear, including a tripod to facilitate my self portraits. I am surprised to see a Starbucks plastic cup next to the TV. It must be an iced herbal tea type drink, I did not drink a lot of coffee back then, but don't I remember Starbucks in the 1990s."—Melissa Auf der Maur

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James Jumping, Italy

Photograph by Melissa Auf der Maur

"James Iha, the guitar player in The Smashing Pumpkins was my close friend on the world tour we did for the album Machina: The Machines of God. He was with me when I found my treasured Russian panoramic camera at a secondhand camera shop in Germany. I took this photo with that camera, which occasionally has film loading problems, which results in ripping the top of the negative. James' head is ripped off from the eyes up because of it, but I don't mind as it makes it seem like he is jumping out of the frame. I am very open to happy accidents in photography."—Melissa Auf der Maur

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On Stage With Bass, South Africa

Photograph by Melissa Auf der Maur

Melissa Auf der Maur self portrait taken on stage, with timer on camera, sitting on Bass amp.

"This is part of a series I experimented with on the Smashing Pumpkins world tour. In Hole I sang a lot of back ups so was occupied for most of the show, but with the Smashing Pumpkins, I did not sing, so I had freedom to move around the stage and address my cameras. I'd set up a a variety of cameras on my bass amp, with various timing or trigger devices to take photos as we played. This show in Cape Town was the last show of our South African tour, which was the last leg of the world tour. Because of my adventurous mother, I spent my second birthday in Africa, back in 1974. This was my first time returning to the continent. It was in November 2000, Gore lost to Bush while we were there. I made the red dress I am wearing by hand while on tour. I have a 5' x 8' mounted print of this, I made for a photo exhibit I had at Sotheby's in 2003. The large print works really well, because you can see the details of the people in the crowd."—Melissa Auf der Maur

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