Sheila Rock an American portrait photographer, born in USA and currently resides in London since 1970, is internationally renowned for her music photography, specifically her work during the punk and post-punk scene. She became an influential force shaping the look of creative magazines such as The FACE magazine. Rock’s portrait photography covers a wide spectrum of subjects. Ranging from the emergence of Punk and New Wave music, and her sensitive images of British holiday goers depicting a thoughtful portrait of the resolute spirit of British Summer Time. Rock’s work is present in the world of Fine Art for her projects that embrace different genres ranging from “Music”, through her passion for animals “Horses”, evoking her spirituality with “Tibetans”, she describes her early days photographing the “interesting people” she happened to meet on London’s Kings Road in the 1970s.

‘People say as a photographer I have a sensitive eye; an ability to draw out and capture the deepest essence and transcendental nature of my subjects whether they are human, flora or fauna’.

Rock attended Boston University and the London Film School. “I was just a girl with a camera” is not how you would expect the photographer behind some of the most iconic images of the British punk scene to describe herself. Her photography has achieved important successes in a period so disruptive that it marked an era, influencing the fashion and art, and also costumes.

Exhibiting extensively across Europe and Asia, a selection of Rock’s photographs is now housed in the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection in London. In addition to this rich body of work, Rock’s editorial and fashion work has appeared in numerous publications, including Time Magazine, German Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest and the Sunday Times.

Most famed for her photographs of the music and fashion industry, Rock’s book Punk: a Document of Punk from 1976-1980, was released in 2013 with subsequent exhibitions in Tokyo, China, Singapore, Taiwan and London. Recording the emergence of Punk and New Wave music in the 1970s and 80s, from the Cure to the Clash, from Siouxsie Sioux to the staff of Vivienne Westwood’s Sex shop, Rock records the raw energy and DIY ethos of a London right on the brink of a movement.

Known for photographing leading entertainment and music industry artists in both Classical and Pop/Rock. For many years Rock provided press and publicity for institutions such as the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet and the Barbican London. Her current work is more focused on personal photographs, recently published in a series of books available as images in galleries.

EXHIBITIONS

2003     First book SERA – the way of the Tibetan Monk – a monograph on Tibetan monastic life (Columbia University Press). The accompanying exhibitions showcased in London, New York, Turin, and Berlin.

2013     Second book PUNK+ a document of the London 70s punk scene (First Third Books). Exhibitions followed in London, Paris and Berlin.

2014     Exhibition Touring of PUNK+ in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore.

2015     TOUGH & TENDER – my love letter to England – (Kehrer Books) a delicate and sensitive report from the English seaside. Book launch in Liverpool at the Look Photo Festival.

2015     Exhibition – Seascape portraits – Johanna Breede Gallery, Berlin.

2015     Exhibition – Seascape portraits – Agnes B Gallery, Paris Photo.

2020     Second edition YOUNG PUNKS (Omnibus Books).

2022     Third book 80S SOUND AND VISION (Quarto). A overview of the music and style of an extraordinary decade where the streets and the nightclubs became a catwalk .

Rock’s work is part of the Permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London.