Acclaimed music photographer Jill Furmanovsky founded Rockarchive in 1998, inspired by the world renowned Magnum Photo Agency. After nearly thirty years shooting some of the biggest band’s in rock history, Jill wanted to make her work, and that of other music photographers and visual artists, more accessible for fans and collectors to own.
To launch the collective, Jill selected 30 classic black and white images of major rock artists from her 30 year archive, to make into an edition of 30 darkroom prints. Edition 30/30/30 as it became known, was the first collection from Rockarchive. Since then the archive has grown in volume and stature, and now publishes over 1000 images by more than 80 photographers and graphic designers. As well as producing and selling limited edition prints, we also now curate and design exhibitions for galleries and public institutions both in the UK and across the world.
At the heart of Rockarchive, is the desire and understanding to work directly with music photographers. Collaborating with them to rediscover their archives, and curate unique, authentic photography collections they can share with the world. Rockarchive works closely with the biggest names in rock photography, Mick Rock, Michael Putland, Bob Gruen, Kevin Cummins to name a few, as well as lesser known practitioners, who were in the right place, at the right time to captured one incredible shoot or up and coming photographers just starting out on their careers.
Whether capturing the spirit of a live show, collaborating directly with musicians to create unforgettable record covers, or shooting timeless documentary images, Rockarchive's distinguished contributors work represents the very best in music photography. Look closely at the pictures, read the captions, and you will suddenly find yourself there – in that moment. That is the power of music photography at its best.
When using our website you can search via musician or photographer to find specific images and for quick access just click the A-Z bar to see each band listed alphabetically. To help simplify things, we have also created a range of collections that group images together to reflect our editions, exhibitions and specific compilations, such as album covers or new arrivals. Checking out our collections is a great way of exploring what is available on our site. If you are looking for prints from a specific genre or era, you can simply click out ‘Artists’ tab to see the range of options available.
Most of our prints are expertly made in our London studio. Those that aren’t are sourced directly from the photographer. The majority of our prints are sold in limited editions, numbered, stamped and signed by the photographer. In the case where a photographer is deceased, they are estate stamped. All our prints are produced on the high quality, archival papers.