New York native Catherine McGann picked up photography while studying painting in art school in the mid ‘80’s. Instantly smitten, she abandoned her brushes and hasn’t looked back. Shortly after graduation she moved to the East Village, where her journalistic, documentary style found a perfect home at the weekly alternative newspaper, The Village Voice.
She quickly became a Contributing Photographer, shooting assignments at a breakneck pace throughout the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, including a regular weekly nightlife column which continued for fifteen years with famed New York writer/personality Michael Musto. Catherine documented some of the most compelling personalities in music and beyond including: Iggy Pop, Marilyn Manson, Green Day, Aretha Franklin, Black Crowes, Diamanda Galas and others.
Catherine’s client list soon expanded to include Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Spin, Mute Records, Guitar World and many others. Her work has been published extensively internationally, and she has been profiled in publications in New York, London, and Tel Aviv. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Believing that shooting a portrait is “an intimate thing, a two way street” Catherine favored working on location in 35mm black-and-white: “I’d rather be a fly on the wall in someone else’s world than try to fit them into an artificial world that I impose on them. I really believe in ‘the decisive moment’, that the best pictures are truly spontaneous, and almost given to you, somehow…”
Ready for a change, she packed up her negatives in 2001 and moved to Los Angeles with her family, where she currently lives and works.
Green Day had just hit it big and I was assigned by Entertainment Weekly magazine to shoot the band backstage at Madison Square Garden.
Marilyn Manson backstage at The Jon Stewart Show in New York in June 1995
Sex Pistols on the set for the 'Pretty Vacant' video shoot at the ITN Studios, London in June 1977
This photo session was for No.1 Magazine (long since extinct) on a Eurythmics press day, they’d been doing interviews all day.
In the studio in Santa Monica, California in 1980, Bob Dylan is captured whilst leaning on his guitar case.
Early shot of The Fall at Central Station Car Park, Manchester in the summer of 1978
The Stranglers are one of the most enduring bands to have come out of the punk scene with an uncompromising attitude and idiosyncratic style
The Who are an English rock band that formed in 1964 & are considered one of the most influential rock bands of the 20th century.
Fleetwood Mac are one of the world's greatest rock bands having sold over more than 100 million records over the last 50 years
The Ramones' loud, fast, straightforward musical style was influenced by music that the band members grew up listening to in the 50s & 60s.
Jill Furmanovsky is one of the greatest ever rock & roll photographers with a huge archive of iconic shots of the world's best music artists
We are all still reeling from the tragic loss of David Bowie. Here is a wonderful tribute from one of our photographers, Mark Mawston.
The USA has given us many of the world's greatest music artists - we celebrate the best of the best
For eight years photographer Brian Duffy worked with David Bowie and shot his most iconic and enduring images. View his fantastic collection
