Steve Gullick

Steve Gullick

From 1st April – 13th May, Rough Trade East are showing Steve Gullick's first ever exhibition of work in London. Renowned as one of the world's best rock n' roll photographers, this hand printed selection includes powerful images of Nick Cave, Neil Young, Cat Power, Jason Pierce, Nirvana, Thurston Moore, Seasick Steve, Kim Deal, The Raconteurs, Mercury Rev, Jeff Buckley and Grinderman amongst many others. The April 1st opening will be celebrated with live performances from Ed Harcourt, Duke Garwood and Tenebrous Liar along with DJ sets from Soulsavers & Jim Sclavunos.

Here, the man who also created the classic underground music mags 'Careless Talk Cost Lives', and Loose Lips Sink Ships', talks about how the show came about and the story behind some of his most iconic images.

Dazed Digital: Steve, why are you doing this show now?

Steve Gullick: I was convinced by my agent to do an exhibition in Los Angeles in January. While I was doing it I got really into printing pictures - I never really printed my pictures big before, there was never a reason to. As I was assembling it I thought it would be cool to show them in Coventry as well, which is where I am from. So I did another set of pictures and put them up at the same time. I really liked the ludicrous concept of showing it simultaneously in LA and Coventry. I really enjoyed both experiences, and decided that I'd show it in London and print a lot more new pictures. There are at least 10 or 15 pictures that I didn't get the time to print, and there's no space for them anyway.

DD: So, how many pictures are going to be shown in the Brick Lane show?

SG: I think there's about 45. They all about 25" by 16" - pretty big. I think I'm going to price them according to how difficult they are to print. For example Bjork would be really expensive, because that photo was really hard to print.

DD: It just looks like a straight black and white to me...

SG: Ha! When I printed that I had to block out the background, I can't stand the background that was there. I used to paint these canvases backgrounds, and I just don't like it. There are bits of it you can still see at the bottom. I wanted it to look sort of avant-garde, you know, just straight white, it's really difficult to print that.

DD: So you still do it by hand than on a computer?

SG: Absolutely, I'm a craftsman baby! Obviously they've been through a computer, as you've got it on your website, but there's no retouching on the computer, it's all completely manual.

DD: Did it take a lot of persuasion for Etna to erupt on cue?

SG: No, it was erupting anyway! When we arrived all my gear had got robbed, except what I had in my hand luggage. We just hired a car and drove around the island for a couple of days Jason had his furnace suit on and I had an out of date press pass. It looked amazing.

DD: Your shot of Bonnie Prince Billy is pretty iconic.

SG: It's an interesting composition, it's quite classic. We met at the Columbia Hotel, and Will was pretty fucking miserable. I just took the shots purely because I had to get some shots, and it turned out pretty well. I don't like to be too in control, I think it's more creative if you don't know what's going to happen next. For me, the best pictures have come out of problems really. My job is taking an interesting picture in every situation.