KEVIN CUMMINS: In His Own Words
4 August 2024Celebrating the work of influential photographer, END. invited the illustrious imagemaker to spotlight his favourite works ahead of the launch of the END. x adidas SPZL “By the Sea” collection.
Renowned for his striking portraits and live shots of some of the world’s most iconic music stars, Kevin Cummins’ work throughout the 1980s and ‘90s has been instrumental in documenting the rapidly changing music culture of the UK. Capturing musicians at the peak of their stardom, the images Cummins created offered a perfect reflection of the artists and their personal aesthetic worlds.
Born and raised in Manchester, Cummins’ native city proved to be a fertile ground for his lens. Photographing the iconoclastic punk scene in the late ‘70s, Cummins quickly became a key figure in the documentation of British music in this time, working as a founding contributor to The Face and his own publication, City Life. As Chief Photographer for The New Musical Express for 10 years, Cummins captured legendary acts at the beginning of their ascent to global stardom. From Oasis and Joy Division to Bjork and Courtney Love, his work is recognised the world over for its captivating and candid depictions of beloved artists. Ahead of the launch of the END. x adidas SPZL “By the Sea” collaboration, shot by Cummins, the photographer shared an insight into his most revered work.
Deborah Harry, Manchester Free Trade Hall, May 1977
"Blondie opened for Television but stole the show. The band love this shot and have used it officially for years. The T-shirt slogan “Camp Funtime” helps the photo enormously too."
Bob Marley, Stafford 1978
"This was their only show in the UK on that tour. I loved the way Marley threw his head around and his dreads seemed to follow in slow motion. I wanted to capture them almost silhouetted in the light and to catch that motion."
Bernard Sumner, New York, July 1983
"This was taken at 6am as we were leaving the Hot House. Bernard making double denim as cool as fuck."
Shaun Ryder, 42nd St New York City, July 1990
"A couple of years earlier when we were in NYC, Shaun and Bez had been warned by the police about drinking in the street. Eventually the cop told Shaun if he wanted to drink in the street to keep the bottle in a brown paper bag. Shaun took this to mean drinking anything, not just alcohol, and here he is, drinking Perrier Water, but brown bagging it."
Liam Gallagher, Oasis in store at Tower Records, Piccadilly, London, August 1994
"It was predictably chaotic, and I admired Liam’s ability to zone out with all the chaos around him. I wanted to get what’d look like a formal portrait, rather than a “Banter Brothers” type shot. I love this photo. I could have spent all day in a studio and not got a shot as lovely as this."
On discussing his relationship with adidas SPZL, Kevin said "I’m really proud of the work I've done with Gary over the years. Working on the Spezial range is a really satisfying period in my professional career. It’s great that so many collectors of Spezial appreciate the photos too. I love the brand and I always look forward to the next one, knowing there will always be pieces that I’m proud to wear. Gary does an amazing job each year with Spezial. Long may it continue".
Gary, meanwhile, very much reciprocates the respect and admiration, commenting “In the very early days of SPZL, I picked the phone up and spoke to Kevin Cummins about us working together. I already had a relationship with Kevin, I had a number of his photographs on my wall, because he photographed pretty much all of my favourite bands. He photographed everybody from the Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Joy Division and New Order, through to Bowie, Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols. I already knew Kevin and was a fan of his work, so when I got the greenlight to work on adidas SPZL, I picked the phone up and said, “look, I know you’re not a fashion photographer, but I think it would be great if we could take some photographs of people who I’ve got relationships with, who support what I’m doing”. Kevin’s philosophy for the way he works as a photographer is he doesn’t turn up with a big set up or loads of assistants, it’s just him and his camera, and his philosophy is if he doesn’t get the shot in the first five minutes, he’ll never get the shot. Because he works as a music photographer, he could work in an incredibly stealthy way. So, the first couple of seasons I remember we’d show up at Don Letts’ house, and we’d say, “we want to get a couple of photos of you Don, can you wear this tracksuit?”. So we shot a whole bunch of musicians that I was a fan of, but then we started looking at it and thought “we’ve shot Don Letts, we’ve shot Bernard Sumner, we’ve shot Noel Gallagher, but they’re all over 50”, so then it was like, we need to add a younger element to this. One of the things they used to say to me in my early days at adidas was, “if in doubt, ask what Adi would’ve done”, and to Adi Dassler, the sports person, the athlete, was always the ultimate. So then I started speaking to adidas sports marketing about shooting some of the football players, so in the early days we shot Lukas Podolski and that, in a way, set the foundations for some of the stuff we did further down the line, when we shot the likes of Luke Shaw and Kieran Tierney.
It always has to feel right, and a lot of what we do with SPZL is instinctive. You know, those early shots we did with Kevin were very spontaneous and off the cuff, and, in a way, quite guerilla, as we weren’t turning up there with cheques or contracts or any of that stuff, it was literally just a simple phone call. But in a way, what that did was create the foundations for what we did further down the line, where we created films using football players or musicians. So yeah, Kevin’s work has been very important, and he also has a really good working relationship with Nick Griffiths, so when we are making the SPZL films, nobody knows Kevin is even there, he kind of ghosts around and then, at the end of the day, he appears will of these great photographs. His style and philosophy of working is perfect for SPZL, and there’s a lot to be said for working with longstanding relationships, instead of flittering around and trying to jump on the latest, hippest thing. Kevin’s CV and his work really speaks for itself.".
