A synchronized increase in negative connotations and the general gall of the paparazzi has made it difficult to differentiate the artists from the exploiters among celebrity photographers. Kevin Mazur is one of the select few who has managed to toe the artist's line. It is this same line that has led him right into Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as its newest special exhibit, "All Access with Kevin Mazur."

The exhibit is currently open to the public through May in the Ahmet M. Ertegun Main Exhibition Hall, which showcases twenty-plus prints spanning his twenty-five year evolution.

Mazur’s career germinated from a childhood love of rock 'n' roll and a life-changing high school graduation gift, his first camera. He attended his first concert, Led Zeppelin, in 1977 by way of mail order tickets and a party train. However, it was the magnetic force of Stevie Nicks from whom he could not pull his camera away, essentially laying out his life’s ambition for him.

From there he learned to duck and weave security, funding his way through scalping tickets. His renegade techniques eventually paid off and his first published photo was of Billy Joel, appearing in People magazine in 1982. Unlike many celebrity photographers, Mazur is one of the few who is actually invited to events and welcomed on stage and behind the scenes. He describes his career as a snowball effect: You meet one rocker and inevitably you meet their rocker-friends and so on and so forth. Before you know it, you are the only one Bob Dylan will allow into the recording studio and Prince is inviting you to document his Oscar after-party.

Like many artists, the story behind the piece means as much and sometimes more than the piece itself. Meeting Mazur, I was privileged to hear the stories behind the photographs, the essence of the moment, which he revealed in an animated manner. The moments of raw talent he has immortalized through his photos is only half as intriguing to me as the portraits he is able to compose. One of the portraits is a close up of Willie Nelson. His profile dominates the left foreground with a blurred American flag in the right background. The black and white composition emulates a delicate pencil drawing. The flag is a subtle reminder that Willie Nelson is about as American as apple pie, without seeming too clichéd because of the blurred effect.