  Sting, taken by Andy Summers. (Photo courtesy of andysummers.com)
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If Andy Summers hadn't picked up a guitar to make a living, he is certain he would have picked up a camera.
The Police guitarist has just released a 600-page, coffee-table book of black-and-white photos and tour-diary writings, I'll Be Watching You: Inside The Police, 1980-1983.
"My interest was in 1979, I was in New York, and I sort of had enough money to buy a decent Nikon and I thought, 'Okay, well, I think I'll try and get really good at this, not knowing if I really had the aptitude," Summers told Sun Media this week.
"But I actually became very passionate about it and found that, in fact, I did have the aptitude and it almost took over my life."
Of course, the really interesting part is that Summers had an all-access pass as one of the band members.
"I realized I was pretty much documenting the life from the inside," he said. "I've got the more interesting stuff, obviously the more candid stuff, which is what it really is about. It's not a pin-up book, by any means. It's the absolute opposite. It's the sort of the warts-and-all version of touring through the various stages we went through, all shot through glorious black and white. It's a very personal trip through those times, obviously, very unique in the fact that it's shot completely from the inside of a very famous band. Very few people in the world will ever be able to do that"
Summers said he's a fan of romantic street photographers like Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ralph Gibson, Lee Freidlander, and Diane Arbus, along with the black-and-white films of Truffaut, Fellini, Goddard, and Antonioni.
"It was a very powerful experience for me as a teenager and they always stayed with me," he said of seeing those movies. "I sort of lusted for whatever that feeling was, I got from those films, the black and white, the power of it, and the emotional resonance by at least shooting with a still camera and trying to recreate that stuff somewhat, like cinema verite but with a still camera. I think that's what I'm looking for."
The book has also sprouted a touring photo exhibit that stops in Toronto from July 25 until Aug. 14 at the Edward Day Gallery on Queen St. W.
After the opening in L.A. -- "a gigantic celebrity turnout, it was one of those ridiculous Hollywood nights," reports Summers -- the exhibit travelled to Las Vegas and Miami.
Following Toronto, it will go to Boston, London, Denmark, Barcelona, and then Japan.
As for his bandmates, Summers says Police singer-bassist Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland were and still are good photographic subjects.
"They're pretty good about it. I was able to give them both this very beautiful book. Obviously they deserve to have one. It authenticates my photographic skills. I don't put bad pictures of them anywhere. I mean they both look great."
