Kevin Cummins (photographer)

For other people named Kevin Cummins, see Kevin Cummins (disambiguation).

Kevin Cummins
Cummins, Hatchards, London, 2023
Born	1953 (age 71–72) [1] Manchester, England
Known for	Photography
Website	kevincummins.co.uk

Kevin Cummins (born 1953) ^[1] is a British photographer known for his work with rock bands and musicians. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} His work is held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery ^[1] and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. ^[6]

Career

Cummins studied photography at Salford College. ^[7] He started photographing rock bands in the mid-1970s in Manchester. ^[8] Cummins had a 25-year association with the NME , ^[9] including 10 years as their chief photographer. ^[10] He has photographed numerous bands and musicians. His images have been seen as a contributing factor in the rise of the Madchester and Cool Britannia scenes. ^[11]

Cummins was instrumental in establishing City Life, ^[12] Manchester's what's on guide and was a founding contributor to The Face , the style magazine where he won an award for Magazine Cover of the Year. ^[13]

Cummins's photographs have been used extensively in cinema and TV documentaries, including Grant Gee's Joy Division and John Dower's Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop . ^[14]

He worked extensively for the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester when it opened in the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. He shoots regularly for the National Theatre in London, most recently for Harper Regan and Mrs. Affleck. ^[15]

A lifelong Manchester City F.C. supporter, ^[16] Cummins documented City's final season at Maine Road in the book We're Not Really Here. ^[17]

In 2005, British pop artist Peter Blake produced a screen print based on one of Cummins' Joy Division prints. ^[18]

Publications

• The Smiths and Beyond (2002)
• We're Not Really Here: Manchester City's Final Season at Maine Road ^[17]
• Juvenes (2007). Edition of 226 copies. ^[19]
  • Joy Division: Juvenes. Cassell, 2021. ISBN   978-1788402712. ^[20]
• Manchester: Looking For the Light Through the Pouring Rain ^{[21] [22]}
• Joy Division (Rizzoli, 2010)
• New Order (Rizzoli, 2015)
• Assassinated Beauty: Photographs of the Manic St Preachers. London: Faber & Faber, 2014. ISBN   978-0571312139. ^[23]
• Telling Stories: Photographs of The Fall. London: Mitchell Beazley, 2022. With a foreword by Simon Armitage. ISBN   978-1784728250.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• 1981 Stage Struck, Royal Exchange, Manchester ^{[ citation needed ]}
• 1983 Access all Areas, Royal Exchange, Manchester^{[ citation needed ]}
• 1985 Silent Faces, Oldham City Art Gallery ^{[ citation needed ]}
• 1986 Cummins 10, Cornerhouse, Manchester (part of the Festival of the Tenth Summer ^[24] )
• 1986–96 The Way We Were, Wigan Heritage Centre ^{[ citation needed ]}
• 1994 Salfordians, Salford City Art Gallery ^{[ citation needed ]}
• 2002 The Smiths and Beyond, Proud Central, London ^[25]
• 2003 We're Not Really Here, Richard Goodall Gallery, Manchester ^[16]
• 2006 Arca: Joy Division, Paul Stolper Gallery, London ^[26]
• 2009 The Crucial 30: Post Punk Liverpool, The Hard Day's Night Hotel Gallery, Liverpool ^[27]
• 2012: Exemplar: Joy Division, Manchester Photographic Gallery, Manchester ^[28]
• 2014: New Order, Manchester Photographic Gallery, Manchester ^{[29] [30]}

Group exhibitions

• 1999 Icons of Pop, National Portrait Gallery, London, included three of Cummins' photographs ^[1]

Awards and honours

In November 2009, Cummins was awarded an Outstanding Contribution to Music Photography award by the music industry website: Record of the Day. ^[31]

In 2015 Cummins was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Arts) by Manchester Metropolitan University. ^[32]

Collections

Cummins' work is held in the following permanent collections:

• National Portrait Gallery, London: 4 prints (as of 12 October 2022) ^[1]
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 7 prints (as of 12 October 2022) ^[6]

References

1. "Kevin Cummins - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
2. Cummins, Kevin. "Richey Edwards". The Observer. 14 December 2008. Retrieved on 3 February 2009
3. Savage, Jon. "Spit and polish". The Guardian . 24 September 1999. Retrieved on 3 February 2009.
4. "'My family were horrified': Unseen Sex Pistols photos to go on show in London". The Guardian. 8 September 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
5. "25 things you didn't know about The Stone Roses: NME recreates an iconic cover by Kevin Cummins". nme.com. New Musical Express. Archived from the original on 19 April 2009.
6. Museum, Victoria and Albert. "Search Results - V&A Explore the Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
7. "Rock can be a hard place - Media, News - The Independent". 27 September 2009. Archived from the original on 27 September 2009.
8. Cummins, Kevin (2007). "Closer to the birth of a music legend". theguardian.com. The Observer.
9. "Photographer Kevin Cummins and Steven Wells honoured at music industry awards". nme.com. New Musical Express. 27 November 2009.
10. "Wilson: a portrait". bbc.co.uk.
11. "Biography of Kevin Cummins which appears on Red Eye's site" (PDF).
12. "Short biography on Vauxhall's Style Council website (takes quite a long time to load up)". Archived from the original on 30 January 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
13. "Kevin Cummins". Rockarchive. Retrieved on 3 February 2009.
14. "Kevin Cummins (III)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 3 February 2009.
15. "NT : What's On : Productions : Mrs Affleck". National Theatre. Retrieved on 3 February 2009.
16. "Maine Road finale charted". BBC News. 9 September 2003.
17. We're Not Really Here: Manchester City's Final Season at Maine Road (2003) ^{[ ISBN missing ]}
18. "Peter Blake Love Portfolio Archived 31 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine ". Paul Stolper. Retrieved on 3 February 2009.
19. "Juvenes: The Joy Division Photographs Of Kevin Cummins - Record Collector Magazine". 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2021.^{[ ISBN missing ]}
20. "Joy Division: Photographer Kevin Cummins on capturing the post-punk icons". BBC News. 27 October 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
21. "Manchester: Looking for the Light Through the Pouring Rain". newstatesman.com. New Statesman. 2009. Retrieved 9 September 2021.^{[ ISBN missing ]}
22. "Kevin Cummins on Manchester music". The Guardian. 19 September 2009. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 9 September 2021.
23. Nightingale, Jo (2014). "Assassinated Beauty: Photographs of Manic Street Preachers by Kevin Cummins : book review". Faber & Faber. Retrieved 9 September 2021.^{[ ISBN missing ]}
24. "cerysmaticfactory.info". cerysmaticfactory.info.
25. "Look back in angst". theguardian.com. 6 April 2002.
26. "Paul Stolper Gallery". Archived from the original on 31 December 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
27. Sampson, Kevin (2009). "From Berlin to Bootle". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 20 May 2009.
28. Anderson, Sarah (16 January 2012). "Beautiful Joy Division shots from Kevin Cummins' new exhibition" . Retrieved 12 October 2022.
29. "New Order by Kevin Cummins - a new show in Manchester". The Guardian. 24 June 2014. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 12 October 2022.
30. Walters, Sarah (10 June 2014). "Never before seen photos of New Order in Manchester exhibition". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
31. "Record of the Day full list of 2009 awards". Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
32. "Kevin Cummins receives honorary degree". mmu.ac.uk. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University. 2015.