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.
