Rock ‘n’ Roll Photography Is the New Trainspotting

Overview

Imagine if you got to take photos of your musical icons for a living. Wouldn't that be the life? Yeah, well, Tony Mott does that every day, and there's plenty more to be jealous of.

450 album covers and more than 700 magazines are adorned with Tony's photos, and he has snapped everyone from the Rolling Stones to Nick Cave, Bob Dylan and Silverchair.

The Sydney-based artist first picked up a camera during his teenage train spotting years, taking still black and white photos of trains as a hobby. He got his start as a professional photographer in the early 80s, following The Divinyls, with his first paid photograph used as a tour poster. His now epic collection of band portraits spans more than 30,000 photographs in total.

Mott's impressive resume includes an extensive list of high-profile musicians, yet several touring gigs with the Rolling Stones remains the highlight of his career. He has also travelled with Silverchair, Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan, and that's only a name dropping a few!

The exhibition A Retrospective of Work from the Last 30 Years by Tony Mott is full of familiar famous faces and magical music moments including images of  Queen, Midnight Oil, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Elton John, Nick Cave, Powderfinger, Neil Finn, Ozzy Osbourne and Björk. Mott's book of the same name is also currently available via his website.