CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/11/2026

In 'My ’90s Rock Photographs,' Melissa Auf der Maur plays witnesses to her own existence

“I was not taking photographs of myself to look pretty,” Melissa Auf der Maur is quoted in her new photography monograph, My ’90s Rock Photographs, launching Friday night at the Strand. “I was taking photographs of myself to witness my existence so that I could believe in my life to serve the living experience, to serve other people, both literally my band members but also the teenage people who needed the music, and, I imagined, the women of the future who may continue to need women to be doing things in the male-dominated fields of photography and music.” Pictured here, Self-Portrait on Stage with the Smashing Pumpkins, Cape Town, South Africa, 2000.