Matt Anker

Matt Anker has been a professional photographer based in London for over 20 years. Born in Epping, Matt grew up in Kent and acquired his first camera at age 10, and began experimenting with a 35mm camera as a teenager, playing with distortion and colours. This led to his attending what was then the Medway School of Art and Design to study advertising and editorial photography.

His first job was as an assistant to Jill Furmanovsky, which led to stints with Mel Yates, Nick Yates and Normski, eventually Matt was able to secure his own studio with Mel Yates.

During the early 1990’s, the ’indie’ music scene in Britain was in a transitional period, on the cusp of exploding into the mainstream. Small fanzines and indie magazines with obscure circulations documented bands such as Blur, The Inspiral Carpets and Carter USM, one such magazine, Lime Lizard, gave Matt his first break, and he was able to photograph the early careers of bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana and others associated with the ’Grunge’ movement.

Matt began working for the major record companies, and took many memorable images of artists, as varied as Blur, Motorhead, The Orb, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Massive Attack, Nick Cave and Napalm Death.

Matt’s style has been informed by such diverse influences as comtemporary artists such as Rothko and Dali and the great reportage images of the 1920’s and 30’s.