Jill Furmanovsky

Jill Furmanovsky is a photographer whose concert pictures, portraits and backstage work document successive generations of popular music. She moved from what is now Zimbabwe to London as a child and enrolled at the Central School of Art and Design in 1971. An opportunity to photograph at the Rainbow Theatre in 1972 began a professional career supplying the music press, including NME, Melody Maker, Sounds, Smash Hits and The Face.

Her work followed musicians through punk, new wave, ska and reggae, while the growth of style magazines encouraged an increasing emphasis on studio portraiture. Long working relationships with artists including the Pretenders and Oasis gave her access to life beyond the stage. In 1998 she founded Rockarchive, a collective publishing music photography as prints and exhibitions. Her career connects images made for immediate editorial use with their later preservation and circulation as a photographic archive.