Influential pop photographer Brian Griffin dies

Brian Griffin, widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent British photographers of his generation, has died aged 75.

Born in Birmingham, in 1948, Griffin studied photography, in Manchester, before starting work as a freelance photographer, in 1972.

His portraits for Management Today magazine playfully subverted conventional contemporary corporate photography.

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

St Pancras Left Luggage, 1973

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Rush hour on London Bridge, for Management Today, 1974

“I took this photograph in 1974,” Griffin said.

“It was for an article about people commuting into London to work

“I hailed a taxi and asked to be driven slowly across the bridge, while I took images through the cab’s back window.

“The inspiration was obviously Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis.”

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Rocket Man, Dungeness, Kent, 1979

Griffin’s later work graced many album covers.

His 1979 picture of writer Charlie Woods standing to attention after lighting a sky rocket on a grey misty day on Dungeness Beach, in Kent, was used many years later for the cover of Howard Jones’s album Cross the Line.

And his portraits of artists such as Ringo Starr, Iggy Pop, Peter Gabriel, REM, Depeche Mode and Queen, led the Guardian newspaper to name him photographer of the decade, in 1989.

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Iggy Pop, studio portrait from the album cover Soldier, 1979

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Depeche Mode’s A Broken Frame album cover image, 1982, Saffron Walden, Essex

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Singer Siouxsie Sioux, of Siouxsie and the Banshees, 1984

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Echo & the Bunnymen, 1981

New Musical Express (NME) named Echo & the Bunneymen’s Heaven Up Here, shot at Porthcawl beach, in Bridgend, best album cover of 1981, Rolling Stone magazine among the best ever.

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Elvis Costello, 1978

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Brian May, Queen guitarist, 1980

Griffin was influenced by Renaissance painting, surrealism and German expressionist cinema.

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Carpenter, Broadgate, City of London, 1986

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Douglas Adams, 1986

But growing up and working in the industrial Midlands also helped define his aesthetic.

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Big Bang, Broadgate, City of London, 1986

More than 20 monographs of Griffin’s work have been published.

It has been the subject of more than 50 international solo exhibitions and is held in collections at the;

  • Victoria and Albert Museum
  • National Portrait Gallery
  • Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
  • Reykjavík Art Museum
  • Mast Foundation, in Bologna

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Bureaucracy, 1987

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Office Dance, 1986

Griffin became the patron of Format Festival, in 2009, and received the Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal, in 2013.

influential pop photographer brian griffin dies

Brian Griffin, 2022

All works copyright Brian Griffin Estate, courtesy of MMX Gallery

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