David Corio

There's rock photography and rock photography, David Corio's shot both. Born in London in 1960, David attended Gloucester College of Art & Design when he was 16. Through his sister’s then fiance Wreckless Eric, David was introduced to the fledgling Stiff Records and photographed their first tours featuring Ian Dury and Elvis Costello, along with the pub rock and burgeoning punk scene.

Whilst working in an industrial darkroom, David began freelancing for New Musical Express and worked for them on a regular basis from 1979 till 1984 getting to photograph Bob Marley, Jerry Garcia new unsigned bands like U2 and The Birthday Party. He worked for The Face, Time Out and Black Echoes and was photographer, music listings and nightclubbing editor of City Limits in the early eighties. He also took portraits for the Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian.

In 1992 David moved to New York City working for the New York Times and shooting for several UK papers, magazines and record labels. David’s work has featured on hundreds of CD sleeves particularly in the reggae field and in many books. In 1999 his first book ’The Black Chord’ (Rizzoli/Universe) with Vivien Goldman was published featuring over 200 of David’s photos of black musicians that he had shot over twenty years.

In 2003 David published ’Megaliths’ (Jonathan Cape) , a fifteen year project with author Lai Ngan Corio featuring his photographs of the prehistoric stones of England and Wales and the legends and folklores that are attached to them.

His work has been shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Photographer’s Gallery, Special Photographers Company, London and Jack Shainman Gallery, Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, Morrison Hotel Gallery and Eyejammy Gallery in New York and in Remix Gallery, Osaka, Japan and Dusty Gallery, Hong Kong.