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
The Cure on the road in Holland and Belgium during their 1980 'Seventeen Seconds' tour.
Paul Weller, from The Jam, dressing for a cover shoot for 'The Face' in London in March 1983
David Bowie captured by Mick Rock whilst applying make-up in Scotland in 1973
Kurt Cobain, from Nirvana, photographed in October 1990 outside the Dalmacia Hotel, Shepherd's Bush, London
Oasis were an English rock music band formed in Manchester in 1991, to date the band have sold over 70 million records worldwide.
The Specials are an English 2 Tone and ska revival band, their music combines a ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude.
The Stone Roses are an English rock band, formed in Manchester in 1983, meshing '60s-styled guitar pop with an understated '80s dance beat.
Joy Division (originally named Warsaw), an English rock band formed in 1976 were one of the pioneers of the post-punk movement.
The USA has given us many of the world's greatest music artists - we celebrate the best of the best
Welcome to our Jazz & Blues Print Collection - over 50 years of iconic images of the world's greatest Jazz & Blues musicians
Here are the very latest prints we have added to our collection. We hope you love them as much as we do.
Edition 100 was created to give fans & collectors a chance to own classic, historical pictures of their favorite bands.
