Since he was 16 years old, pioneering photographer David Corio has built an unparalleled six-decade music photography archive.

From Bob Marley’s final London performance to the birth of hip-hop in New York, for almost 50 years Corio has been in recording studios, backstage dressing rooms and major cultural events like Notting Hill Carnival and Rock Against Racism, documenting the 20th century’s most groundbreaking musicians.

“Bob Marley was really difficult to shoot. He was almost in a trance, dancing like a shaman. His locks were thrashing around. It didn’t make it easier that I was standing chest-deep in a lake at the time. I got down to my last shot, the 37th frame on my last roll of film and waited – and just managed to capture it all at the right moment. There have been a few times over the years when, just as you click the shutter, you feel that you’ve got it. This was one of them. I was 20, just starting, and I’d only done a dozen jobs. I wouldn’t have known at the time he was ill” –
David Corio on capturing Bob Marley’s final London performance

Corio now shares an exclusive, career-spanning collection for photography platform Print Matters, with 20% of every print and fine art poster sale donated to mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness.

At Marvin Gaye’s seminal Royal Albert Hall concert, Corio was the only photographer standing in the pit. Corio remembers “Everyone was dressed to the nines, and there was just me, alone at the front. It felt like Marvin was singing to just me.”

Biz Markie in London, 5 April 1988. Photo: David Corio / Print Matters

“Normally you’d get your name put on the door, so you’d get in for free. That was one of the main reasons I did it – to get into gigs.” – David Corio

Nina Simone at Ronnie Scott’s, Nick Cave in an abandoned church, Horace Andy dancing in the London snow outside Rough Trade Records, Print Matters are proud to present the widest collection yet of Corio’s unforgettable portraits.