Nick Elliott
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Nick Elliott is an English[disambiguation needed] rock art photographer best known for his iconic black and white images of some of the world’s best known musicians. His images have been featured on album artwork and in the media, and his work has been likened to Bob Gruen, Mick Rock, Henry Diltz, Jenny Lens and Anton Corbijn. [1]
Early Life
Born in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Nick grew up and was schooled in Stanground before leaving to pursue a career as an editorial photographer with East Midlands Daily Press (EMAP) newspapers The Peterborough Evening Telegraph and The Peterborough Advertiser.[2]
After completing training in editorial photography, Elliott moved on to work in the Magazine Division in the EMAP group shooting for titles including: Anglian Times, Trout Magazine, Motor Cycle News, Motor Cycle Racing and Horse & Hound.
He left EMAP to pursue a freelance career and continued in editorial photography and was commissioned by International Publishing Corporation (IPC) for Truck Magazine, Truck and Driver, and Auto Car, alongside EMAP and other media and publishing houses.
During this time, Elliott also shot royal and celebrity stories including the Queen, Princess Anne, the Duke of Bedford, Barry Sheene’s win of the world 500cc Motorcycle Championship and Dave ‘Boy’ Greene’s British Heavyweight title attempt.
Advertising
After a very successful career in editorial photography, Elliott was creatively frustrated and decided to pursue a career in advertising and was commissioned by top London agencies including; Saatchi & Saatchi, Yellow Hammer, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubican, GGT, Carlson Direct, MSBK and Publicis.
During this period he shot many major above and below-the-line campaigns for blue-chip companies and brands such as Coca-Cola, British Telecom, British Airways, Walt Disney, Lloyds TSB Bank, Sheraton Hotels and Jaguar.
In 1990 Elliott won 3rd in Euro Best Advertising Awards with Publicis’ campaign ‘If You’re Not Feeling Too Special’ for Sonatogen and after shooting Prime Minister John Major in 1991, was commissioned by TBWA to shoot the prestigious General Election billboard campaign for the Liberal Democrats in 1992 depicting the message ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.[3]
Rock Music
Elliott’s first encounter with shooting rock music professionally came early in his career when he photographed Trapeze for the Peterborough Evening Telegraph when the band performed in his home-town of Peterborough in 1973.[4]
After Elliott’s work in music photography became increasingly in demand he went on to specialise in that area, documenting all genres of music from punk and blues to folk and Americana but it is the rock genre for which he is most well-known.
The names that have been in the glare of Elliott’s lens are the A to Z of the industry including Alice Cooper, Amy Winehouse, Bill Wyman, Blondie, Bob Geldof, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Garbage, Idlewild, Motorhead, Metallica, Nickelback, Ozzy Osborne, Robert Plant, Roy Wood, Saxon, Status Quo, The Blockeads, Thin Lizzy, ZZ Top.[5]
Much of Elliott’s work has included photo-documentaries with Earl Slick, The Marmalade, Mike Harding, Planet Rock, and most recently the recording of Ed Graham, former drummer and founding member of The Darkness, personal and professional life since leaving the band in 2014.
Published Work
Elliott’s images have been published extensively in the media and licensed for use in CD covers, promotional material and live performances with commissions by record companies, record labels and independent music artists.
In 2011, Elliott was approached by specialist music book publisher Rufus Stone and released his debut book, TEN-A Decade In Images of his favourite images from ten years of the legendary Cambridge Folk Festival. It was officially endorsed by the folk festival organisers Cambridge City Council and included quote by some of the musicians featured in its pages such as Richard Hawley, Fairport Convention, John Tams, The Levellers, and Steve Earle.
Elliott went on to release a follow-up book, 50Folk[6] as a personal celebration of 50 years of the festival in 2014 and a year later released third book, Three Weeks One Summer,[7] documenting the pop band The Marmalade during the making of their Penultimate project of a CD, DVD, and vinyl record with promotional booklet all shot by Elliott.
A fourth book, Ice Cream & Sun Cream, was released in 2017[8] and was entered for an award at the Vienna Photo Book Festival.[9]
Exhibited Work
2010: Blues Brothers - Doric Arts (Norfolk)
2010: Celtic Queens - Storm Fine Arts (Norfolk)
2010: Gods of Rock - Mandell’s Gallery (Norfolk)
2010: Gods of Rock – Planet Rock (London)
2010: Just This Side of Sane - J Gallery (Northamptonshire)
2011: Here Come The Boys - Gallery At The Dome (Worthing)
2011: Guitar Heroes - St Pauls’ Gallery (Birmingham)
2011: UK Tour – Studio Gallery (Henley-on-Thames)
2011: UK Tour - Aubrey Art Gallery (Essex)
2011: UK Tour - The Barge Gallery (Stratford-upon-Avon)
2011: UK Tour - George Thornton Art (Nottingham)
2012: Festival of Colours – Storm Fine Arts (Norfolk)
2012: Rock Art And Wine (RAW) - Château Les Carrasses (France)
2015: Size Matters – Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire
The 2015 exhibition Size Matters at Cholmondeley Castle, Cheshire, was attended by 65,000 people[10] and featured 13 images measuring a massive eight meters high in what was believed to be the largest outside art exhibition of its kind ever.[11]
The images exhibited were a collection of Elliott’s typical black and white creations of household name including E-Street Band’s Nils Lofgren, Thin Lizzy’s Ricky Warwick, Beverley Knight, Motörhead’s Lemmy, The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins, Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr, Skunk Anansie’s Skin and Europe’s Joey Tempest.[12]
Bibliography
2011: TEN-A Decade In Images (Rufus Stone Publications)
2014: 50Folk ISBN: 9781320352857
2015: Three Weeks One Summer ISBN: 9781366441300
2017: Ice Cream & Sun Cream ISBN: 9781366421609
External Links
References
- ^ "SHOOT TO THRILL - NICK ELLIOTT ROCK PHOTOGRAPHER". American Noir Blog. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ Peterborough Presents (2015-09-17), Peterborough Artist Spotlight - Nick Elliott, retrieved 2017-04-05
- ^ "Art Direction". CAT. 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ "Artists [ S – Z ] « THEY PLAYED PETERBOROUGH . . . . ". peterboroughimages.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ Nick Elliott Press Office (2015-04-15), Nick Elliott Interviewed On Mustard TV, retrieved 2017-04-05
- ^ "KL Magazine May 2015". issuu. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ "TRL MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2015". issuu. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ Betts, Marc. "Norfolk rocks! Photographer of the stars puts county in frame with new book". North Norfolk News. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ "Iceni Magazine Norfolk Issue 48". issuu. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ "65,000 attend exhibition by Peterborough-born rock photographer". www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ Gillman, Colin. "Outdoor wide format printed art exhibition claims to be largest ever". Graphic Display World. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
- ^ Biddle, Sophie. "Cromer-based company help rock photographer's exhibition escape the conventional gallery". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 2017-04-05.