Born in 1948, in South London, Colin Prime attended St. Michael’s and All Angels Comprehensive and then the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts. On leaving school he followed his older brother (Tony Prime) into photography. He joined a commercial photographic printing house to learn darkroom skills. In the late sixties although he enjoyed the darkroom side, he also wanted to get behind the camera and joined Fleetwood Publications as a trainee photographer working on Honey and Petticoat magazines.
As his career moved on he worked alongside people like Len Fulford, Morgan Rank, and Vic Savage.
He still enjoyed working in the darkroom, and working with Gerry Dickens he printed for photographers such as David Bailey, Helmut Newton, David Hamilton, Clive Arrowsmith and Richard Avedon when he was in London.
Colin’s other love was music and not playing or singing a note decided to try his hand as a Disc Jockey. It was while he was hanging around the clubs he came across a group just starting out called Pink Floyd which led to setting up the bands first professional photo shoot. Syd Barrett used one of his photos as the design for the back cover of their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Colin decided to stay in music as a full time career, in the early days working alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Otis Redding, Rolling Stones, Santana and Bob Marley but unfortunately did not carry a camera with him!
After over twenty years in the music industry, Colin made another career change and went into the IT industry, which he stayed in until he passed away on 7th October 2013.
The original Pink Floyd line-up on their first ever photo shoot in Ruskin Park, London
For their first photo shoot, Colin Prime took the band down to Ruskin park. All the guys were in high spirits at the time
This was Pink Floyd’s first official photo shoot. Although a photographer by trade, Colin Prime’s other love was music
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Thelonius Monk performing at the Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island in July 1965
Fleetwood Mac during a photocall on a cruise ship in the Rotterdam harbour before a pair of concerts in Amsterdam, April 1977.
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