Though Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is best known for countless hit songs on multiple albums, his latest creative endeavour shifts the focus to another kind of compilation: a collection of his photography.

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, seen performing in Budapest in July, has struck a balance between his music and photography careers. (Balazs Mohai/MTI/Associated Press)

Issued by art house publisher Steidl, Exposed is a retrospective of Adams' portrait photography and gathers some of his top images of friends and colleagues from the worlds of entertainment, fashion and art.

The book features a foreword by Elton John and its subjects range from Gordon Lightfoot to Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse to Ben Kingsley. Some of the images were shot for magazines like Interview, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and Canada's Zoomer.

'When people consider working with you, they always check you out and I think your work has to stand for itself'—Bryan Adams

"I enjoy the creative side of what I'm doing now. Not to say I'm going to give up my day job, because that ain't gonna happen...I enjoy the whole thing of creating a team and creating something out of nothing," Adams told CBC News in London.

"Whether it's music or photography, there's something about that whole creative spirit that I love."

Exposed is Kingston, Ont.-born, Vancouver-raised Adams' latest photography book. His first was the well-received Made in Canada. Published in 1999 and featuring portraits of Canadian women in dramatic black and white, Made in Canada served as a successful fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Foundation. Subsequent titles have included Haven and American Women

In recent years, Adams has balanced his musical career, releasing albums and touring, with his photography gigs, one of which was a five-minute session with the Queen. But it's not a case of his name landing him every photography job he wants, according to Adams.

Bryan Adams snaps quick pictures of fans as he arrives at an airport in Nepal in 2011. (Binod Joshi/Associated Press)

"Your work has to stand out before anything else. Regardless of whether I have a name or not, it's not how the work should be accepted," he said.

"When people consider working with you, they always check you out and I think your work has to stand for itself."

Along with the publication of the book, the images from Exposed are also being showcased in an international touring exhibit. After recently concluding in Moscow, the photos are travelling to Germany and the U.S. before moving on to other countries, including the U.K. and Qatar, in 2013.