| Andrew Catlin | |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Nationality: | British |
| Citizenship: | British |
| Education: | Durham University |
| Occupation: | Photographer, artist, director, cinematographer |
| Years Active: | 1981–present |
| Children: | Alexander, Felix |
| Parents: | Harry Catlin, Joan Catlin |
| Awards: | Prince Philip Prize |
Andrew Catlin (born 1960)[1] is an English photographer, artist, director, cinematographer and filmmaker. His work has been widely published, and is included in numerous collections, books, exhibitions and archives.
His work is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.[1]
Catlin grew up intrigued by both arts and science. His childhood was spent in London in the 1960s during a period of great transformation and social change. His father, Harry, was the son of a carpenter from the Midlands, who moved to London in the 1950's to work at the BBC. His mother, Joan, was from the north east of England, growing up in county Durham, before coming to London to study English and then finding work at the BBC, where she met Harry.
Catlin had early interests in ethology and also photography, which was encouraged by his father, himself a keen photographer. In 1978, Catlin was awarded the Prince Philip Prize for Zoology by the Zoological Society of London for a research project completed while at school.[2] After attending University College London, he continued his studies with a psychology degree at Durham University before returning to London to do a research degree in Learning and Development at University College London.
During this time he developed his interest in photography. Early work for NME, Melody Maker, Smash Hits, POP and Spin quickly extended to other publications, and commissions from record companies, musicians, designers and artists internationally. His work appeared on record sleeves, books and magazine covers. He was one of the photographers chosen to document the Live Aid concert in 1985 and was the largest single contributor to the subsequent exhibition and book.[3]
During the 1980s he began directing music videos.[4] During a visit to Japan while working with Bryan Adams, he was experimenting with a Super-8 movie camera, when Adams asked if he would film one of his live songs. The black and white clip that followed was reviewed by Chrissy Iley in Direction Magazine as a great debut. His second video, for the Cowboy Junkies track, Blue Moon was given a feature in Direction:
"Blue Moon surprised me, impressed me, and I'm hard to impress, especially with performance videos. Its approach is not clinical or technical or corporate. But its flickered lights and sepia faces strike a mood that few directors of the three-minute clip even bother to think necessary. The facial expressions are important to him, and are carefully monitored with his portraiture eye. Fortunately, MTV shared my view and put it on heavy rotation."(Chrissy Iley).
Catlin was Director of Photography for Elements of Mine, a film by Egyptian director Khaled El Hagar which was awarded First Prize in the Toronto Moving Pictures Festival (MoPix Award 2004). [5]
In 2008, drawing together experience from photography, filmmaking and graphic design, he began a project called "The Matrix Series", exploring graphic compositions with complex multi-frame narratives. Each piece was shot as a set of images designed to interact in multiple dimensions, combining elements of time, movement, rhythm, narrative and graphic structure, while remaining within an essentially documentary framework. In his essay "Nine Hastings Photographers" Vasileios Kantas proposes that
"Andrew Catlin's imagery formations could be considered as a study on perception. His matrix suggests a unique syntax, of which the visual elements have been formed partly coincidentally - the subject's actions - and partly in a controllable way - the photographer's decisions. The way the sub-frames are selected and positioned in the matrix is preconceived, though it does not serve the linearity of time which seems to be loosened, if not abolished. The display of the sub-frames allows different reading strategies, seemingly serving many goals simultaneously."Sean O'Hagan, photography writer for The Observer, notes
"In his Matrix series, he has somehow merged the rigorously formal with the luminously observational. Whereas the likes of Blossfeldt and the Bechers created visual typologies, arranging plants and industrial water towers respectively in grids that echo the natural and man-made sameness of their subjects, Catlin has used the grid format to render a series of what he calls "critical" moments. The resulting images are both formally detached and acutely observational, ordered yet intimate. ... Andrew Catlin is a photographer with a scientific eye. He is obsessive, meticulous and rigorous, but also a quiet, unobtrusive observer of the everyday sublime. It shines brightly though his big pictures."[6]
In 2021 he produced an exhibition and book of portraits, Rebel Song, exploring the connections of history and faces of Irish music. Excerpts from the book were presented by The Irish Cultural Centre in London, with commentary:
"Rebel Song; Faces of Irish Music is a collection of photographs of some of the most important musicians who changed the face of Irish Music into the international force it is today. With the words of Irish song's, quotes from the musicians, and written commentaries on Irish history and on British colonial rule in Ireland, published throughout – what emerges is a powerful and sublime book which charts the evolution from Irish folk, into rebellious Rock, Pop and Protest Songs and Punk, which burst into the sounds and voice of a nation's resistance and exploded onto a global stage.What's so extraordinary about the book is that its author, photographer Andrew Catlin, is an Englishman, who knew nothing about Irish history at the outset. While producing the book Catlin under-went a journey of discovery to find the connection between Irish music, the history of Ireland, and the passion, power and intensity of some of the greatest Irish songwriters and performers of the last 50 years.
Catlin says "Many of the references in Irish songs – people and places that in Ireland carry a heavy weight of history – have no meaning at all in England. You feel the strength of emotion, but unrecognised names seem quaint or unimportant. It can be shocking when you find a familiar song is about a shameful episode of British brutality."[7]
His photography is held in major collections and archives worldwide, ranging from The National Portrait Gallery in London[8] to the Schwules Museum in Berlin.[9]
The Official Book (1985), paperback
| Title | Artist | Year | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Til I Die | Bryan Adams | 1999 | Photography | |
| So Far So Good | Bryan Adams | 1993 | Photography | |
| Please Forgive Me | Bryan Adams | 1993 | Photography | |
| All I Want is You | Bryan Adams | 1991 | Photography | |
| Waking Up the Neighbours | Bryan Adams | 1991 | Photography | |
| 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of Joan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | 2000 | Photography | |
| Happiness | Lisa Germano | 1993 | Photography | |
| Wishful Thinking | Propaganda | 2012 | Photography | |
| 25: The Greatest Hits [CD/DVD] | Simply Red | 2008 | Photography | |
| 25: The Greatest Hits [Single Disc] | Simply Red | 2009 | Photography | |
| 33 | Susheela Raman | 2007 | Art Direction, Photography | |
| Actually | Pet Shop Boys | 2001 | Photography | |
| Anthology | Bryan Adams | 2005 | Photography | |
| Anthology [2007] | Bryan Adams | 2007 | Photography | |
| Automatic | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1989 | Photography, Portraits | |
| Automatic [DualDisc] | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 2006 | Portraits | |
| Babi Yar/Drill FACT 266 | Steve Martland | 1989 | Photography | |
| Balinese Dancer | Chuck Prophet | 1993 | Photography | |
| Barbed Wire Kisses | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1988 | Photography | |
| The Best of Aztec Camera | Aztec Camera | 2001 | Photography | |
| The Best of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Nick Cave | 1998 | Photography | |
| The Best of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds [Bonus CD] | Nick Cave | 2001 | Photography | |
| Big Blue Ball | Big Blue Ball | 2008 | Photography | |
| Big Cock | King Kurt | 1986 | Photography | |
| The Brit Box: UK Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium | Various Artists | 2007 | Photography | |
| Brother Aldo | Chuck Prophet | 1990 | Design, Photography | |
| Burnin' the Ice | Die Haut | 1983 | Photography | |
| Campfire Songs: The Popular, Obscure and Unknown Recordings of 10,000 Maniacs | 10,000 Maniacs | 2004 | Photography | |
| Capital Letters: The Best of Ruefrex | Ruefrex | 2005 | Photography | |
| Chains Changed | Throwing Muses | 1987 | Photography | |
| Cleaner Light | Kristin Hersh | 1999 | Portraits | |
| Collection, Pt. 2 | Christy Moore | 1997 | Photography | |
| Coming Home | Yungchen Lhamo | 1998 | Photography | |
| Complete Studio Albums Box | Sugarcubes | 2006 | Photography | |
| Crock of Gold | Shane MacGowan | 1997 | Photography | |
| Church of the Holy Spook | Shane MacGowan | 1994 | Photography/Design | |
| That Woman's Got Me Drinking | Shane MacGowan | 1994 | Photography/Design | |
| Candleland | Ian McCulloch | 1989 | Photography | |
| Proud to Fall | Ian McCulloch | 1989 | Photography | |
| Mysterio | Ian McCulloch | 1989 | Photography | |
| Bedbugs and Ballyhoo | Echo and the Bunnymen | 1988 | Photography | |
| Love | The Cult | 2009 | Photography | |
| Darklands | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1987 | Photography | |
| Stories of Johnny | Marc Almond | 1985 | Photography | |
| Don Juan Demarco [Soundtrack] | Various Artists | 1995 | Photography | |
| End of the Millennium Psychosis Blues | That Petrol Emotion | 1988 | Photography | |
| Essential Pogues | The Pogues | 1991 | Photography | |
| Fairytale of New York | The Pogues | 2012 | Photography | |
| Sally Maclennane | The Pogues | 1985 | Photography | |
| Final Flame | That Petrol Emotion | 2000 | Photography/Art Direction | |
| First of a Million Kisses/Ay Fond Kiss/Mirmama | Fairground Attraction | 2002 | Cover Photo | |
| Forbidden City | Electronic | 1996 | Photography | |
| George Best | The Wedding Present | 1987 | Photography | |
| George Best Plus [George Best Plus] | The Wedding Present | 1997 | Photography | |
| Griller | Ut | 1989 | Photography | |
| Here Today, Tomorrow | The Sugarcubes | 1989 | Photography | |
| Hips and Makers | Kristin Hersh | 1994 | Photography | |
| Hips and Makers | Your Ghost | 1993 | Photography | |
| Hollywood Town Hall | The Jayhawks | 1992 | Photography | |
| Waiting for the Sun | The Jayhawks | 1992 | Photography | |
| Honey's Dead | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1992 | Photography | |
| Inconsiderate Bitch | Lisa Germano | 1994 | Photography | |
| Into the Blues | Joan Armatrading | 2007 | Photography | |
| Islands | Mike Oldfield | 1987 | Photography | |
| It Was the Best of Times | Supertramp | 1999 | Photography | |
| Just Like Everybody [LTM] | 23 Skidoo | 2008 | Photography | |
| Just Say Anything | Just Say Yes | 1991 | Photography | |
| Tambolero | Totó La Momposina | 2014 | Photography | |
| La Candela Viva | Totó La Momposina | 1993 | Photography | |
| Live 1987 | The Wedding Present | 2007 | Photography | |
| Live Aid [DVD Boxed Set] | Various Artists | 2004 | Photography | |
| Live! Live | Live! | Bryan Adams | 1995 | Photography |
| Lonely, Cryin', Only [#1] | Therapy? | 1998 | Photography | |
| Love Bites & Bruises: Wonder Stuff Anthology | The Wonder Stuff | 2001 | Photography | |
| The Lost Are Found | Claudia Brücken | 2012 | Photography | |
| Love Trap | Susheela Raman | 2003 | Photography | |
| Vel | Susheela Raman | 2010 | Photography & Design | |
| Ghost Gamelan | Susheela Raman | 2018 | Photography & Design | |
| Lovelife | Lush | 1996 | Portraits | |
| Lovesongs for Underdogs | Tanya Donelly | 1997 | Photography | |
| Lovesongs for Underdogs [Japan] | Tanya Donelly | 1998 | Photography | |
| Merge | Arthur Baker | 1989 | Photography | |
| Mirmama | Eddi Reader | 1991 | Photography | |
| Mysterio | Ian McCulloch | 1992 | Photography | |
| Dug For Love | Ian McCulloch | 1992 | Photography | |
| Candleland | Ian McCulloch | 1992 | Photography | |
| Proud to Fall | Ian McCulloch | 1992 | Photography | |
| Never Loved Elvis | The Wonder Stuff | 1991 | Photography | |
| Never Loved Elvis [Bonus Tracks] | The Wonder Stuff | 2000 | Photography | |
| Patrol | Steve Martland | 1994 | Photography | |
| Picture Book [Bonus DVD] | Simply Red | 2008 | Photography | |
| Please/Further Listening 1984–1986 [Bonus CD] | Pet Shop Boys | 2001 | Photography | |
| The Jesus and Mary Chain | 2007 | Photography | ||
| Blues from a Gun | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1989 | Photography | |
| Teethgrinder | Therapy? | 1992 | Photography | |
| Nurse | Therapy? | 1992 | Photography | |
| Semi-Detached | Therapy? | 1998 | Photography | |
| Sidewalking | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1988 | Photography | |
| Automatic | The Jesus and Mary Chain | 1989 | Photography | |
| POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND THE BEATS – Public Enemy's Greatest Hits [Edited Version] | Public Enemy | 2005 | Photography | |
| Power to the People and the Beats – Public Enemy's Greatest Hits [Explicit Version] | Public Enemy | 2005 | Photography | |
| Pretty Deep [#1] | Tanya Donelly | 1997 | Photography | |
| Pretty Deep [#2] | Tanya Donelly | 1997 | Photography | |
| Provision | Scritti Politti | 1988 | Photography | |
| Real Sugar | Paban Das Baul | 1997 | Photography | |
| Retro | New Order | 2002 | Photography | |
| Retro [Bonus CD] | New Order | 2002 | Photography | |
| Ricks Road | Texas | 1993 | Photography | |
| Rum Sodomy & The Lash [Expanded] [Bonus Tracks] | The Pogues | 2005 | Photography | |
| Salt Rain | Susheela Raman | 2001 | Photography | |
| The Same Sky | Horse | 1990 | Cover Photo | |
| Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits | Various Artists | 1995 | Photography | |
| Semi-Detached [Bonus Tracks] | Therapy? | 2000 | Photography | |
| Seven Songs [LTM] | 23 Skidoo | 2008 | Images | |
| 23 Skidoo | 23 Skidoo | 1983 | Photography | |
| Sharks Patrol These Waters | Various Artists | 1995 | Photography | |
| The Shouting Stage | Joan Armatrading | 1988 | Photography | |
| Sky Motel | Kristin Hersh | 1999 | Portraits | |
| Slave to Love: Best of the Ballads | Bryan Ferry | 2000 | Cover Photo | |
| Slave to Love: Best of the Ballads [Japan] | Bryan Ferry | 2000 | Cover Photo | |
| Square the Circle | Joan Armatrading | 1992 | Photography | |
| Still Burning | Mike Scott | 1997 | Photography | |
| The Snake | Shane MacGowan | 1995 | Photography/Art Direction | |
| The Snake [Bonus Track] | Shane MacGowan | 2000 | Photography | |
| So Far So Good | Bryan Adams | 1993 | Photography/Art Direction | |
| The Sound of the Smiths [Deluxe Edition] | The Smiths | 2008 | Photography | |
| Sounds of the Eighties: 1986 | Various Artists | 1994 | Photography | |
| Tommy (1985–1987) | The Wedding Present | 1988 | Photography | |
| The Culling Is Coming | 23 Skidoo | 1983 | Photography | |
| Language | 23 Skidoo | 1984 | Photography | |
| Trilogy | The Pogues | 2006 | Photography | |
| Bedbugs & Ballyhoo [LP] | Echo & the Bunnymen | 1988 | Photography | |
| The Very Best of Echo & the Bunnymen: More Songs to Learn and Sing [CD/DVD] | Echo & the Bunnymen | 2007 | Photography | |
| Volume Two [World's End Ltd.] | Various Artists | 1991 | Photography | |
| Voyage | Christy Moore | 1989 | Photography | |
| Wave of Mutilation: Best Of Pixies | Pixies | 2004 | Photography | |
| Where is My Mind? | Pixies | 2004 | Photography | |
| All Shall Be Well | Virginia Astley | 1992 | Photography | |
| Had I The Heavens | Virginia Astley | 1996 | Photography | |
| Way Down Below Buffalo Hell | Way Down Below Buffalo... | 1993 | Photography | |
| Real World 25 | Various Artists | 2014 | Photography | |
| A Week or Two in the Real World | Various Artists | 1995 | Photography | |
| Wildest Dreams | Tina Turner | 1996 | Photography | |
| The Stars We Are | Marc Almond | 2002 | Photography | |
| Sweet Ride | Belly | 2002 | Photography | |
| This Is It | Faith No More | 2003 | Photography | |
| Nurse | Therapy | 1992 | Photography | |
| Teethgrinder | Therapy | 1992 | Photography | |
| Wembley 1996 | Bryan Adams | 2016 | Photography | |
| The First Kiss of Love | Cronin | 2016 | Photography | |
| Tomorrow Never Knows | Susheela Raman | 2016 | Photography | |
| The Queen Between | Susheela Raman | 2014 | Photography | |
| The Sound of the Smiths | The Smiths | 2008 | Photography | |
| The Best of 25 Years | Sting | 2011 | Photography | |
| Icon 2 | Public Enemy | 2014 | Photography | |
| Wave of Mutilation | Pixies | 2004 | Photography | |
| Sky Motel | Kristin Hirsch | 1999 | Photography | |
| Wildest Dreams | Tina Turner | 1996 | Photography | |
| Cleaner Light | Kristin Hirsch | 1999 | Photography | |
| Live Aid | Various Artists | 2004 | Photography | |
| Power to the People and the Beats | Public Enemy | 2005 | Photography | |
| Bring the Noise/Sophisticated | Public Enemy | 1988 | Photography |
"69 Police" (2000)
'555' (1998)
'C’mon Cincinnati' (1998)
'The Angel & The Gambler' (1998)
'Care About You' (1996)
'Secrets' (1996)
'Company News' (1988)
'Can't Live Without My Radio' (1988)
'Detonate' (1993)
'Black Feathers' (2009)
'Hello Waveforms' (2006)
'Outerindia One' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2009)
'Ganapati' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2001)
'Salt Rain' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2001)
'Maya' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2002)
'Orphea' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2010)
'Tomorrow Never Knows' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2016)
'Annabel' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2018)
'Tanpa Nama' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2018)
'Ghost' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2019)
'Going Down' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2019)
'Spoons' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2019)
'Sphinx' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2019)
'Beautiful Moon' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2019)
'Cherubim' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (2015)
'Love and Regret' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (1989)
'Rainy Night in Soho' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (1991)
'Supernatural Giver' (dir: Catlin) (1992)
"City Sick" (dir: Catlin) (1993)
'Please Forgive Me' (dir: Catlin) (1993)
'Straight from the Heart '(5 screen version) (dir: Catlin) (1993)
'Summer of '69' (Live) (dir: Catlin) (1993)
'Run To You' (Live) (dir: Catlin) (1992)
'Into the Fire' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (1988)
'When the Night Comes' (dir: Catlin) (1993)
'Cmon Everybody' (dir: Catlin) (1993)
'Let's Make a Night to Remember' (dir: Catlin) (1996)
'Blue Moon' (dir/DOP: Catlin) (1988)