In 1966 Ray Stevenson was working in a professional darkroom. He then began shooting folk musicians at Les Cousins and Marquee folk-night.
Ray didn’t photograph the famous, he photographed the talented: who went on to become famous… Sandy Denny, Roy Harper, Marc Bolan, David Bowie.
In 1967 he embraced the Hippy Movement as well as still enjoying the folk performers.
Seeing Jimi Hendrix sound-checking at the Marquee opened him up to electric music. There are three of his pictures on the back cover of Are You Experienced.
Ray shot all of the 1976/7 punk bands, particularly the Sex Pistols whom his younger brother Nils was co-managing with Malcolm McClaren.
Ray took some pretty remarkable photos of the punk rock movement during the mid-70s. Many of his snaps had punk luminaries like Johnny Rotten, Siouxsie Sioux, Jordan, Johnny Thunders and Vivienne Westwood just hanging out.
In 1999, his image of John Lydon was selected as part of the Faces of the Century exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. His images of Tyrannosaurus Rex were also used in the NPG’s exhibition, Icons of Pop.
Ray has published 4 books, 5 if we include Vacant (joint authorship with his brother), plus another book due out in 2019 (ish).
