& RockArchive
Jill Furmanovsky is one of the UK’s best known and respected music photographers, artists photographed in her 40+ year career include many of the biggest names in rock music: Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Blondie, The Police, Led Zeppelin, The Pretenders, Bob Dylan, and Oasis are but a few. She has also directed videos for Oasis and The Pretenders.
Furmanovsky emigrated from Zimbabwe to London in 1965, and when she was 11 years old she became a member of the Beatles fan-club and an ‘Apple scruff’ – one of the teenagers that hung around outside Abbey Road hoping to catch sight of the Fab Four. Her first rock shot was of Paul McCartney standing outside his house with two of her school friends taken on a Kodak Instamatic.
30/30/30 is so named because in 1998 Jill Furmanovsky founded RockArchive by making available 30 of her best images representing her 30 years as a rock photographer in an edition of 30 darkroom prints. Although Jill’s career is now 40+ years, some of her most celebrated images were taken within the 30 year mark, including her portrait of Charlie Watts, for which she won the “Jane Bown Portrait Award”.
“Jill has always been in demand because she is so undemanding. For years she has won the trust of her subjects with her disarming kindness, capturing the essences of everyone from Pink Floyd and the Police to punks and New Romantic peacocks. Apart from winning the Observer Portrait Award with her marvellous 1992 study of Charlie Watts, she created superb images we all know of Chic, B.B. King, Joy Division and Oasis.” Barney Hoskyns
