The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Picture this
Some of the world’s most famous faces have sat for Dundee-born photographer Ken Sharp. Michael Alexander learns about a remarkable life behind the lens
From the streets of Fintry to Hollywood heights, Ken Sharp looks back on a life behind the lens.
There’s an old saying, “You can take the boy out of Fintry but you can’t take Fintry out of the boy”.
Ken Sharp wouldn’t have it any other way. Indeed, the celebrated rock and celebrity photographer credits the “gritty realism” of his upbringing on the Dundee housing scheme for the success of his iconic images.
Now living in St Andrews, Ken studied at the Royal College of Art in London and travelled the world in a career spanning more than three decades.
He took photographs of everyone from Anthony Hopkins to Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton to Johnny Cash and Bjork to David Bowie. And his moody portraits graced the pages of top magazines such as FHM, Q and Rolling Stone.
He now works with his wife Lesley as a successful family portrait photographer. The couple split their time between Scotland and London and still work regularly in the USA.
However, the 63-year-old reveals he had no real ambition to take photographs – let alone leave Dundee – until he enrolled at the city’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
“We had a tough, very poor, upbringing in Fintry,” says Ken.
“My father George worked in Baxter’s jute mill. My mother worked in the mills as well as a spinner.
“It was difficult in the schemes if you were ‘swotty’ at school. You had to defend yourself. Dundee always had that attitude – don’t get above yourself.”
A bright, enthusiastic boy, Ken went to Fintry Primary, Linlathan High School and Morgan Academy, and had his sights set on architecture from an early age.
“I was keen at school, I was always enthusiastic, but I never felt ambitious about anything,” he says.
“I’ve never tried to get on in that sense. I’ve always just had passions for doing things.
“So it was a funny thing – I’d wanted to be an architect from the age of 11. I worked hard. Then, just before I was leaving school I decided I wanted to do drawing and painting.
“I’d been accepted for the architecture course and thought I would see how that goes, with plans to change after first year – and change I did.”
On his first day at art college, Ken was told he’d need a camera to take photographs of buildings. Luckily, a friend in second year had an old Russian-made Zenith model for sale and showed him how to develop a film.
“As soon as I saw the picture come up in the chemicals, I was hooked,” he grins.
“I had never taken a picture in my life at that point.”
Ken transferred to drawing and painting in second year and specialised in graphic design.
He also took a photography module under the wing of the internationallyacclaimed “father of modern Scottish photography” Joe McKenzie, who was a huge influence on his work.
Getting up early in Fintry to take atmospheric shots of local landmarks soon became a hobby but it wasn’t without its risks. He recalls being stopped by police who thought it suspicious that a young lad in the schemes should be carrying a camera.
A self-proclaimed “Dundee boy”, he
My style was gritty realism and I put that down to coming from Fintry
had no great desire to leave the city after he graduated. However, he applied, and was accepted to the Royal College of Art in London in 1978 because he wanted to do a “proper” photography course.
After leaving full time study he went on to lecture at Watford College for a couple of years. By this time he was married with two young children and secured work doing listings and advertising portraits for Time Out and Campaign magazines.
As his reputation grew, he started getting commissions from other magazines and before long he was taking celebrity pictures for the launch of Q magazine.
“My style was gritty realism and I put that down to coming from Fintry,” he says. “I did a lot of stuff in black and white. It was gritty, realistic, intense, black and white portraits.”
Always a location photographer, Ken specialised in using whatever props were available – usually in hotel rooms, foyers or service elevators – and rarely left home without his black cloth backdrop for covering up unsightly wallpapers or bed throws.
Early subjects included Tim Roth, Jonathan Pryce and Nicholas Cage, who he photographed in the Savoy Hotel.
On another occasion he found himself in Belgium tasked with photographing George Michael among a melee of press photographers.
Ken says the nicest person he ever photographed was Leonard Cohen who cooked a meal for him and a journalist in his LA home and gave him gifts when he said he was a fan.
That said, it was often the awkward stars like Van Morrison – “this angry little Belfast guy” – and Lou Reed, who made the best pictures.
“I photographed Lou Reed in a hotel room with the black backdrop,” he laughs.
“He came in with this little entourage and was smoking a cigar with these dark glasses on.
“I said can you take the glasses off and he went ‘no’.”
The session didn’t get any cosier and ended with a sarcastic cough from Ken and a frosty walkout from Reed but the pictures were great.
Rivalling Lou Reed in the charmless stakes was Liam Gallagher, who crossed Ken’s path at an awards ceremony at the height of the Britpop era in the 1990s.
Organisers had put cameras on tables so the stars could take snaps of themselves and the Oasis front man asked Ken if he could take a photograph of a photographer.
“I asked if he could sign it for my son because he is a big Oasis fan. And he went AAAAAARGGHH, grabbed my testicles and walked away,” says Ken. “He was so arrogant.” By far the most unpleasant sitter, was the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell, whose death following a plunge from his luxury yacht was linked with huge discrepancies in his companies’ finances, including his fraudulent misappropriation of the Mirror Group pension fund.
“I photographed him three times and there would always be about an hour’s delay and he would never apologise for being late,” says Ken.
“His whole attitude was one of ‘you are nothing’. He was a truly obnoxious man.”
Still, for every jumped up egomaniac, there was a genuine legend who was a joy to be around.
Among Ken’s favourite pictures are a portrait of author Ruth Rendell from early in his career and another of Rolling Stone Keith Richards in a recording studio service elevator.
The rock and roll wild man was a delight to work with, he recalls. He also has fond memories of Paul McCartney, and Eric Clapton, who were both genuine and personable.
“Some treat it like a business,” he says.
“They know it’s PR. But these guys were fantastic to work with because they know this is a job. You are doing your job, they are doing their job – so let’s just get on with it. “They had no airs and graces.” Glamorous it may have been but the constant globe trotting takes its toll eventually and Ken has no regrets about swapping celebrity photography for the quieter life in St Andrews.
And when he’s not pursuing his newfound love of golf, there are those photo albums to leaf through – a remarkable reminder of a stellar career.