Richard Kelly: Music photographer tells of life snapping stars

Across a career that has seen him photograph some of music’s most recognisable faces, Richard Kelly has built a portfolio and a reputation many can only dream of.

He even became Arctic Monkeys’ go-to man, documenting the band as they rose from relative unknowns to stadium stardom – and his photos have now formed the basis of a new exhibition in Manchester.

But despite Kelly’s eye for a killer shot, he says he never grew up with the dream of capturing sweaty studios, bouncing concerts and glamourous rockers.

In fact, he didn’t dream of being a photographer at all – let alone a two-decade career snapping the stars,

“I started off as a messenger at my local paper, the Manchester Evening News, after leaving school,” he says.

“I saw the photographers come in wearing their own clothes, not a suit, and doing different assignments each day, which appealed to me.

“From there, I went to evening college to study photography and eventually did a degree in documentary photography while working as a photo lab technician and printer to pay my way through uni.”

The degree course gave him “an ingrained interest to document the world around me, which stood me in good stead for shooting bands and artists”.

But it was his extra-curricular activities that brought Kelly to the world of music.

“Whilst studying I used to shoot raves in Manchester, which then led to me shooting for Mixmag and other publications such as Vice and Dazed,” he continues.

“It was a natural progression to shoot bands and fashion.”

His commissions soon brought him into contact with a host of rising stars, but few were as remarkable as the ones he met when he was sent to photograph some relative unknowns on the other side of the Pennines, the then-up-and-coming Arctic Monkeys.

“I first shot the band for Dazed and Confused just before their first single came out.

“I drove over to their rehearsal studio in Sheffield and spent the afternoon with them.

“The shot that features in the exhibition is the very first photo I took of them. I asked them what they sounded like, and Alex said, ‘We’ll play you a few songs’, so I was treated to my very own individual mini gig.”

He says it was simply the “perks of the job”, but the chemistry of that day led to a long relationship.

“We got some really nice shots, and I think they liked the fact I wanted them doing normal things and it was a very relaxed shoot.

“After that, the record label asked me back to shoot their official press shots, which I did again and again until they decamped out to LA.”

He says the band were “great to photograph, laid-back and very funny”, but they also appreciated his way of working “which is more to observe than to participate and hang out with them”.

“To get the photos I want, we have a mutual trust and respect to just let me get on with it from an objective, outside perspective.

“They were great by trusting me and letting me crack on with it, which I think shows by the images and work we produced.”

Yet the band were far from the only huge stars Kelly met at the start of their careers.

His exhibition also includes the first media photo anyone took of singer Florence Welch, which he captured before her act Florence + the Machine became a household name.

“I actually met her as I was shooting her managers at the time, The Queens of Noize,” he says.

“She seemed really photogenic, and you could tell she was going to be a success, so I offered to take some shots of her at the end.

“She was a dream to photograph – I could have picked any one of the 25 shots I took of her for the exhibition and it would have been great.”

He says he finds it really difficult to pick a favourite shot in the exhibition, as he is “really proud of the work as a whole, plus it changes from month to month”, but his current choice is the one of up-and-coming MC and producer Sparkz.

“It came out of a body of work of a group of Manchester MCs that is up there with my best work in my opinion,” Kelly says.

He feels it was important to show Manchester’s new talent alongside the famous names, “as there’s so much at the moment”.

“There are so many artists I wish I could have found time to shoot and include, but I’m really pleased that we have Sparkz, Antony Szmierek, and Akemi Fox in the exhibition alongside more established artists,” he says.

“I think for a photograph to be good in its own right, I have to think it’s good, regardless of who is in it.

“All the work, new artists included, stand up on their own merit, so you may not know who these three artists are yet, but if by coming to the exhibition, you discover new artists alongside seeing ones you’ve already heard, surely that’s a good thing.”

However, he says there is one distinctive older shot he cannot help but return to again and again.

“I do always come back to the shot of Amy Winehouse,” he says.

“I remember taking the shot and knowing it was a good one. Sometimes, you just know.”

Richard Kelly: A Time and Place is at Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester until 31 August. Arctic Monkeys play Old Trafford Cricket Ground on 2 and 3 June.

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