Seminal music photographer Brian Griffin shares a preview of his new book, POP
- TextAnother Man
You name them, Brian Griffiths has photographed them. When it comes to British musicians working in the 70s and 80s, Griffiths has shot them all – from Iggy Pop to Kate Bush, and many other people besides. He made album covers for many of these musicians too, and worked closely with legendary graphic artist Barney Bubbles, who he fondly describes as a “brother”. The photographer has just released a new book of his photography and album covers entitled POP, which launched at the end of last week at Claire de Rouen’s new shop in Bethnal Green. Here, Griffiths introduces this book and tells us about his favourite subjects.
“The book spans from 1977 to the end of the 80s. It features the New Romantics, New Wave artists, post-punks. It has over a thousand images in it, along with 164 album covers. It features bands of all different calibres – from top bands like the Stooges and Iggy Pop to one-hit-wonders, and no-hit-wonders, too. Everyone is treated equally and therefore it’s a real slice of British musical history. You really get a feel for what music in this country was like at that time, because of the quantity of images and because of the variety of bands. Iggy Pop and Kate Bush [were my favourite people to work with] because they were incredibly creative, especially with their bodies. A lot of my subjects couldn’t feel their own bodies, but those two artists could; they could manipulate their bodies and pose.”
POP is out now and available to purchase from Claire de Rouen at 4 Herald Street, Bethnal Green.
