The unsung art of standing in the pit as a music photographer: three decades of rock history and Gibson guitars through the lens of Scarlet Page

A low-angle, black-and-white photo of Cameron Winter passionately singing and playing an electric guitar onstage under bright stage lights. — Cameron Winter of Geese (Image credit: Scarlet Page)

Although it's rarely mentioned in the music press, the work of a small number of music photographers has played an outsized role in our shared cultural history. Think Annie Leibovitz's photo of a naked John Lennon curled around a clothed Yoko Ono. Jim Marshall's shot of Johnny Cash flipping off the camera at San Quentin in 1969. Mick Rock's photos of Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, which arguably did as much to build that persona as the music itself.

Yet the work of these photographers is rarely celebrated in full. Instead, it's left scattered across old magazine back issues, discarded album sleeves, rare tour programs, or most often, left on a contact sheet and ignored.

Here's a refreshing exception. A new exhibition devoted to the work of English rock photographer Scarlet Page, Held: Three Decades of Artists and Their Gibson Guitars, opens in London on September 23 and runs through until February. It takes in a broad sweep of her three-decades-and-counting career, and the breadth and depth are quite astounding.

An astonishing roll call

Page always had rock music in her blood. The daughter of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and French model Charlotte Martin, she studied at London's University of Westminster, graduating with a BA in Photography, Film and Video. Following an apprenticeship with the celebrated rock photographer Ross Halfin, her first big job was shooting Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, for the magazine Raw in 1993

A black-and-white portrait of musicians Justin and Dan Hawkins posing with electric guitars against a light brick wall — Justin and Dan Hawkins of The Darkness (Image credit: Scarlet Page)

An abstract, long-exposure black-and-white photograph showing the motion blur of a figure playing an instrument against a dark background. — James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins (Image credit: Scarlet Page)

From there she went straight into the deep end: cutting her teeth on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, photographing the Beastie Boys and the Smashing Pumpkins from the pit. A year later, one of her images became the cover of The Verve's A Northern Soul, the band's first top 20 album. Not a bad start to a career.

That career takes in an astonishing roll call of names; Foo Fighters, Alex Turner, Lenny Kravitz, Slash, Robbie Williams, The Cure, AC/DC and Wolf Alice among them. And it's not just who she shot; it's the access she got, from arena stages to hotel rooms to backstage corridors, all captured with the same laser-focussed, in-the-moment eye.

In that light, the big appeal of this exhibition for me is the way it moves between live, candid and studio work, each of which demands something different from a photographer.

Guitarist Angus Young is captured as AC/DC supported The Rolling Stones in 2003. Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner is seen at full tilt during their 2023 Glastonbury comeback. Both are classic pit shots: fast, unrepeatable, decided in a fraction of a second.

The offstage shots hit just as hard. Slash, according to Page, was rushing to get to his kids' sports match when she caught him for a portrait at Hollywood's Sunset Marquee hotel; nonetheless, he "became his iconic self for the camera in moments." Paul Weller she captured backstage at the Royal Albert Hall during a Teenage Cancer Trust benefit, a charity Page has supported throughout her career. These are the shots that depend on trust built over years, not intrusion.

Angus Young performs in black and white with fingers raised beside his head and mouth open mid-shout, stage scaffolding visible behind him. — Angus Young of AC/DC (Image credit: Scarlet Page)

Alex Turner plays a sunburst electric guitar on stage in an open shirt and aviator sunglasses, shot from a low angle against a dark arena backdrop. — Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys (Image credit: Scarlet Page)

Paul Weller, in a pinstripe suit, holds a well-worn Gibson guitar close to the camera in a moody studio portrait against a black background. — Paul Weller (Image credit: Scarlet Page)

Jeff Buckley's 1995 Glastonbury set, one of his last festival performances before his death two years later, gets a place too, alongside Jack White, Wolf Alice, Cat Stevens, Michael Kiwanuka, Placebo's Brian Molko, Stereophonics' Kelly Jones, The Cure's Robert Smith, The Stone Roses' John Squire and Kiss's Paul Stanley. The Darkness appear courtesy of the year Page spent as the band's official photographer in 2004; a reminder that a long-term embed beats a single night's pit pass by several miles.

For anyone who shoots concerts for a living, the lesson here is about persistence. The same photographer who cut her teeth at Lollapalooza in 1994 is still shooting artists ranging from Kiss's Paul Stanley and Geese's Cameron Winter three decades on. And to paraphrase that old Queen number: that's a kind of magic.

Held: Three Decades of Artists and Their Gibson Guitars is showing at Gibson Garage London, and is also available to purchase via Red House Originals. The exhibition runs from September 23 to February 2027 at 61-62 Eastcastle Street, London W1W 8NQ.

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Tom May is a freelance writer and editor specializing in art, photography, design and travel. He has been editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine. He has also worked for a wide range of mainstream titles including The Sun, Radio Times, NME, T3, Heat, Company and Bella.