Robert Ellis is the kind of rock photographer I trust because the shots don’t pose, they confess. Seeing his work, the noise comes back in full color: sweat in the stage lights, backstage grins that last ten seconds, and that split-second where a band looks immortal before the van ride ruins everyone’s posture. Credits tell the timeline clean: he starts out in 1968, then lands at New Musical Express (1971–1975), moves through Melody Maker (1975–1976), and keeps rolling as a freelance gun-for-hire for titles like Sounds and Kerrang! (plus the occasional mainstream giant like Time). The real “band periods” here aren’t membership cards, they’re tour years: Ellis is on the road photographing bands across the rock and metal circuit from 1971–1993, then turns the archive into a home base by founding Repfoto in 1982 and later pushing his own book imprint, The Rock Library, in the 2010s. That’s the job done right: stay invisible, keep the shutter honest, and let the music leave fingerprints on the film.

Robert Ellis Wiki