-As one of music's most established photographers, you've developed quite the pedigree. How did this come about?
I worked for Melody Maker, did some commissioned work for them. I previously worked for Sounds, but they closed down.
-They've started again; they're called New Sounds these days.
Have they? I'll have to look that up on the internet. But yeah, I wanted to photograph and Melody Maker gave me the chance to do some of the things I wanted to do. I've been a professional photographer for thirty years now.
-Nirvana, famous for their intense posturings...
What do you mean by that?
-I mean, they portrayed themselves with piercing, almost angry, poses in photographs.
Did they? I've seen photos of them messing around[chuckles]. I mean, they had many serious aspects to them-obviously-but when I was with them, they were a barrel of laughs. All that [seriousness] comes out in the work, I suppose. I know quite a few fairly depressed people, but we know how to have a laugh- even if it is laughing in the face of adversity. We're all faceted.
-What was Nick Cave like?
Nick...I first met him in 1992. He can be affable, he can be unpleasant, the same as all of us. Nick's always on display, everything he does is noted. I worked with him sometime around 2002, I've done more stuff with him going on a few years. It's been a while since I last saw him. It's been a few years.
-It's more recent than the last time I saw him!
What do you mean by that?
-I haven't met him.
Ha ha! What was he like that time?
-You've mentioned magazine covers; are there any that are dear to you?
[Hums thoughtfully]There are some that I'm quite pleased with. There's the NME cover with Elliott Smith I took in 1998. He wasn't big enough at the time, but they used it several years later. That’s one I’m quite pleased with. I haven’t done magazine covers for some time. When we did Loose Lips Sink Ships, we decided not to use advertising.
-One of my favourite of yours is a photo of the famously forlorn Thom Yorke seemingly at peace in his surroundings.
Thom was probably just sick of me. I don't know the one you're talking about, but if he's at peace, that's why. It's one of the parts of being a photographer. You need to be in the background, and let them do their rock thing.They need to feel comfortable.
-There's your wonderful portrait of Graham Coxon in 2005. I assume he'd left Blur?
That was actually about him and his paintings. He must have left Blur in 2002, 2003. I remember he was wearing a t-shirt...I don't remember the exact words... but the t-shirt said something like "Don't ask". Is he back playing with Blur? We would have been talking about his solo music.
-I prefer much of his solo work to Damon Albarn's.
So do I. You can quote me on that!
-I take it spontaneity forms an integral part of your photography.
I'm fine with spontaneity. I like to throw myself into the deep end, and get something good out of it. That’s the way I like it.
-Eminent stylist Anton Corbjn follows a similar philosophy.
He and I are quite similar. The road he and I took was through music magazines, We didn't need to be too qualified to work for music mags. You showed them what you had, and you worked from there. If you didn't have the communication skills, if you weren't likeable, you probably wouldn't go from there. You do have to put up with some of this rock n roll nonsense in our work. Anton’s done some good work with people like Depeche Mode, and I saw some of the photographers I liked in his stuff.
-What was Mark E.Smith like to work with?
Mark was fantastic! Just fantastic. When I first met him, we were drinking beer in the hotel he was in. I worked with him a few times, lovely, lovely guy.
-There's a kaleidoscopic frisson to your black and white work..
What did you say? "Kaleidoscopic frisson"? I like that... what do you mean?
Well, there's a great deal of colour to your absence of colour.
[Starts laughing] I'm going to quote you on that. “Colour in your absence of colour!” It's funny, I use a similar technique with my colour photos, in all their MONOCHROMATIC GLORY!
[Chuckles, utters an imprintable profanity]
I like what you said. I do actually incorporate colour into the black and white. In the early days, we needed a dark room.Luck comes into the photography, but you needed the technical requirements. You needed to be skilled, reliable, you know? I work on instinct and feeling; I'd make a shit teacher. I don't tend to think about it, I just go with what looks good. The 'after' is just as important as the shoot. The process of photography is important , and much of the decision is about how the film is processed.
Speculating on the future of the print magazine, where do you think the medium is headed?[Editor's note- this interview was conducted two hours before Q magazine announced their intention to cease publication. One day later, and the outcome of this answer could have been very different.]
Well, you've mentioned Sounds.. are they doing it as a memento thing? I mean, Mojo are still going, so are Kerrang! I guess it's the same as recording. People are still buying vinyl, even though album sales are small.The days of a magazine selling one hundred and fifty thousand weekly, that's dead. It's becoming more of a niche thing; a fairly small level. To me, I'm old fashioned. I like artifacts. If it's not in my hand, it's not there, you know. But it's been going a while. When we did Careless Talk Costs Lives , we'd sometimes struggle to cover the printing costs.
-You're producing a book, aren't you?
I published the Carelessness book in May. It's a collection of photographs I took for Careless Talk Costs Lives. I also do landscapes, I've got Facebook, Instagram. I normally do exhibitions, but not at the moment.
Steve Gullick, thank you.
I worked for Melody Maker, did some commissioned work for them. I previously worked for Sounds, but they closed down.
-They've started again; they're called New Sounds these days.
Have they? I'll have to look that up on the internet. But yeah, I wanted to photograph and Melody Maker gave me the chance to do some of the things I wanted to do. I've been a professional photographer for thirty years now.
-Nirvana, famous for their intense posturings...
What do you mean by that?
-I mean, they portrayed themselves with piercing, almost angry, poses in photographs.
Did they? I've seen photos of them messing around[chuckles]. I mean, they had many serious aspects to them-obviously-but when I was with them, they were a barrel of laughs. All that [seriousness] comes out in the work, I suppose. I know quite a few fairly depressed people, but we know how to have a laugh- even if it is laughing in the face of adversity. We're all faceted.
-What was Nick Cave like?
Nick...I first met him in 1992. He can be affable, he can be unpleasant, the same as all of us. Nick's always on display, everything he does is noted. I worked with him sometime around 2002, I've done more stuff with him going on a few years. It's been a while since I last saw him. It's been a few years.
-It's more recent than the last time I saw him!
What do you mean by that?
-I haven't met him.
Ha ha! What was he like that time?
-You've mentioned magazine covers; are there any that are dear to you?
[Hums thoughtfully]There are some that I'm quite pleased with. There's the NME cover with Elliott Smith I took in 1998. He wasn't big enough at the time, but they used it several years later. That’s one I’m quite pleased with. I haven’t done magazine covers for some time. When we did Loose Lips Sink Ships, we decided not to use advertising.
-One of my favourite of yours is a photo of the famously forlorn Thom Yorke seemingly at peace in his surroundings.
Thom was probably just sick of me. I don't know the one you're talking about, but if he's at peace, that's why. It's one of the parts of being a photographer. You need to be in the background, and let them do their rock thing.They need to feel comfortable.
-There's your wonderful portrait of Graham Coxon in 2005. I assume he'd left Blur?
That was actually about him and his paintings. He must have left Blur in 2002, 2003. I remember he was wearing a t-shirt...I don't remember the exact words... but the t-shirt said something like "Don't ask". Is he back playing with Blur? We would have been talking about his solo music.
-I prefer much of his solo work to Damon Albarn's.
So do I. You can quote me on that!
-I take it spontaneity forms an integral part of your photography.
I'm fine with spontaneity. I like to throw myself into the deep end, and get something good out of it. That’s the way I like it.
-Eminent stylist Anton Corbjn follows a similar philosophy.
He and I are quite similar. The road he and I took was through music magazines, We didn't need to be too qualified to work for music mags. You showed them what you had, and you worked from there. If you didn't have the communication skills, if you weren't likeable, you probably wouldn't go from there. You do have to put up with some of this rock n roll nonsense in our work. Anton’s done some good work with people like Depeche Mode, and I saw some of the photographers I liked in his stuff.
-What was Mark E.Smith like to work with?
Mark was fantastic! Just fantastic. When I first met him, we were drinking beer in the hotel he was in. I worked with him a few times, lovely, lovely guy.
-There's a kaleidoscopic frisson to your black and white work..
What did you say? "Kaleidoscopic frisson"? I like that... what do you mean?
Well, there's a great deal of colour to your absence of colour.
[Starts laughing] I'm going to quote you on that. “Colour in your absence of colour!” It's funny, I use a similar technique with my colour photos, in all their MONOCHROMATIC GLORY!
[Chuckles, utters an imprintable profanity]
I like what you said. I do actually incorporate colour into the black and white. In the early days, we needed a dark room.Luck comes into the photography, but you needed the technical requirements. You needed to be skilled, reliable, you know? I work on instinct and feeling; I'd make a shit teacher. I don't tend to think about it, I just go with what looks good. The 'after' is just as important as the shoot. The process of photography is important , and much of the decision is about how the film is processed.
Speculating on the future of the print magazine, where do you think the medium is headed?[Editor's note- this interview was conducted two hours before Q magazine announced their intention to cease publication. One day later, and the outcome of this answer could have been very different.]
Well, you've mentioned Sounds.. are they doing it as a memento thing? I mean, Mojo are still going, so are Kerrang! I guess it's the same as recording. People are still buying vinyl, even though album sales are small.The days of a magazine selling one hundred and fifty thousand weekly, that's dead. It's becoming more of a niche thing; a fairly small level. To me, I'm old fashioned. I like artifacts. If it's not in my hand, it's not there, you know. But it's been going a while. When we did Careless Talk Costs Lives , we'd sometimes struggle to cover the printing costs.
-You're producing a book, aren't you?
I published the Carelessness book in May. It's a collection of photographs I took for Careless Talk Costs Lives. I also do landscapes, I've got Facebook, Instagram. I normally do exhibitions, but not at the moment.
Steve Gullick, thank you.