From A Rhodesian ( Zimbabwe ) upbringing Jill came to London in 1965 at the age of 11. She became a member of the Beatles fan club and joined the ‘Apple Scruffs’ outside Abbey Road Studios. Her first music picture was taken on a Kodak Instamatic of Paul McCartney with two of her school friends.
It was after only 2 weeks of photography training that Jill was offered an unpaid job as official photographer at The Rainbow Theatre, one of the UK’s most important rock venues in London.
During a career spanning more than 40 years Jill photographed some of the biggest names in rock music: Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and Oasis are just a few. She has also directed videos for Oasis and The Pretenders.
She is a multi award winner including The Jane Bown Observer Portrait Award, and an Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award. Her first book ‘ The Moment ‘ 25 Years of Rock and Roll Photography’ is considered to be a seminal work in the genre.
Her second book ‘ Oasis – Was There Then – ‘A Photographic Journey’ followed a ground breaking exhibition of the same name and toured UK and Ireland.
She is currently working on a career retrospective exhibition planned for 2017, with a book to follow.
Jill Furmanovsky is the founder of rockarchive.com a collective of rock & roll music photographers.
