Kevin Cummins was sometimes more important than the bands. Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks)Cummins' extraordinarily powerful images...illustrates the tense and some-times twisted mutual dependency of fans and their heroes. The LancetCummins captures the phenomenon of fandom as utter fetishism. The ObserverFamed for immortalising Mancunian icons. MojoEvery image [of The Smiths], like every lyric, has integrity. The GuardianHis methods have quite simply shaped the way in which a generation sees its icons. getoutthere.comThe only person capable of capturing the spirit of Maine Road for the final time. Creative ReviewThe photographs in We’re Not Really Here are remarkable. Manchester Evening NewsCummins expertly turns this into a social document on British football of the highest level. British Journal of PhotographyKevin Cummins brilliantly depicts the cherished sense of togetherness that bonds Manchester City’s followers. Daniel Taylor, The GuardianThis book beautiful captures the mood of the place…it should be kept safe- and close to the heart. James Lawton, The IndependentManchester born photographer Kevin Cummins is responsible for some of the most defining images of musicians at work and play ever captured. The malestrom.com[Kevin’s photographs] …have become definitive images of our times aboutmanchester.co.ukHis photographs helped shape rock mythology. Anwen Crawford / The Saturday Paper, Sydney |
One of Britain’s greatest photographers. The IndependentAn intimate glimpse of incipient genius; that precise fabulous moment when subject, shooter and zeitgeist combine to create a truly iconic image. Philip Hoare, EsquireCummins has raised the status of his work to the level of art. John PeelOne of the top rock photographers in the world. Manchester Evening News…using fast film and high contrast printing…the result is entirely post-modernist…the slightly rounded corners echo the format of abstract paintings by Rothko. Robert Hewison, The Heritage IndustryThe images (The Smiths) are as resonant as Cummins’ previous iconicising of Joy Division, which emphasizes their collective power. Sean O’Hagan, The ObserverThe finest early portraits of Morrissey as messiah. MojoKevin Cummins is among the best in the world at capturing the music scene. Manchester Evening NewsKevin Cummins is best known for almost single-handedly chronicling the birth of the Manchester scene. Spin USAHis portraiture of Joy Division's early years thrust him into the cultural mainstream, and presented him as someone who could not only get access to some of the biggest names on the scene, but capture them on a human level. Mike Gibson / squaremile.comHis work with such iconic rock groups as Joy Division and The Stone Roses helped both to create their public personae and cement their visual legacy by taking each band's own striking aesthetic and imbuing it with his own artistic vision, creating a body of work that takes the musician's ideas of self-presentation to their furthest extremes. Danny Riley: The QuietusNaturally, Cummins would be on hand to create the definitive portrait session for The Stone Roses Anwen Crawford / The Saturday Paper, Sydney |
The NME’s saving grace was a sensational collection of action shots by Kevin Cummins. One, showing [Morrissey] draped upside down over a monitor, remains definitive. David Bret, Morrissey: Landscapes of the MindThrough his striking black and white pictures, Kevin Cummins defined the image of Joy Division and helped bring them to a wider audience. Fiona Sturges, the IndependentHis photographs of Oasis have become indelible rock images. The TimesHis shots of the group posing moodily against the grey expanse of their home city remain a crucial part of the Joy Division legacy. Fiona Sturges, The Independent.My favourite NME cover was The Stone Roses when they were covered in paint. That was mega. Liam Gallagher, NME 20/4/02The Roses in the NME covered in paint, Shaun Ryder on the cover with a big E - that was a great defining moment. Richard Ashcroft, NME 20/4/02Unfortunately your pictures are too dark and the faces too obscure...we are unable to use them. National Student Magazine 1985Mancunian Chancer. Q MagazineCummins clearly had Morrissey’s trust – which is something of an achievement given the singer’s wariness of the press. The IndependentFor every band, movement, and moment in Manchester, there was one photographer there to capture it. Forty years of music history; one man's lens. And, despite his modesty, it seems only right that he's honoured for it. Mike Gibson / squaremile.comKevin Cummins is one of the world’s most renowned music photographers The New Statesman |
Kevin's photographs have shaped the way fans perceive their idols. These images capture moments long forgotten. This iconic book ensures they will live forever. Noel GallagherI was usually the unwitting stooge, Steadman to his Hunter S Thompson. Stuart MaconieThese pictures of the Stone Roses in their pomp are the polar opposite of the wintry monochrome of Kevin’s famous Joy Division pictures. But the effect is the same, the creation of an image that mirrors the music beautifully and one the band will forever be identified with. Stuart MaconieWe were making it up as we went along. It was fabulous. Stuart MaconieI chased Kevin out [of Rafters]. I said I was gonna rip his fucking head off cos he was a cunt. Peter HookTime after time, Kevin’s work makes me wish I was in a band. He also makes me wish I was in Manchester in the late Eighties, sucking a Day-Glo dummy; instead of in the North East, in a nappy. Richard MillwardYet the images contain an unexpected tenderness, the band captured on their own terms by someone who understood their world. For all that they reveal, the photographs are complicit in containing the mystery of Joy Division. Natalie CurtisKevin Cummins was a constant, capturing a kind of beauty that seemed elegiac. Ian RankinThere are a few photographers working in music to whom the term ‘legendary’ could be applied, or whose name might be considered as famous – more so, perhaps – than many of the bands and artists he or she has pictured. Manchester’s Kevin Cummins is chief amongst that select group. The Mouth MagazineKevin has always struck visual gold with his photography. Capturing moments that he seems to have been pre-warned about, like some highly skilled photographic mystic meg Louder than War |