Press Sheila Rock

2023

SHEILA ROCK: HOLIDAYS IN GRAY

“The British were fatalists; it was the origin of their cynicism, but it also made them good sharers in misfortune. ‘Oh, well, you mustn’t grumble!’” — Paul Theroux, The Kingdom by the Sea: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britain

2017

MARE MAGAZINE

by Sheila Rock

2016

LIFE FORCE -The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay

TOUGH & TENDER No matter where you are in England, you are no more than a few hundred miles from the sea. There is an inexplicable attraction to the ends of the earth. England is an island nation and the sea has a mysterious power over the psyche. People are drawn to the seashore. The sea is wide and allows the mind to be free and the imagination to slip towards distant places. One island is, however, confined. This juxtaposition encourages an interesting mix of people. The English summer is short; not always sunny. Seaside cities are filled with the former grandeur of yesteryear. They are fragile places; joy is tinged with the sadness of the passage of time. Sheila Rock’s photographs and portraits speak volumes about the uniqueness of the British. They have resolution of spirit and strength. They dare to sunbathe on rocky shores, laugh in the pouring rain and stand in the mud when the skies are always grey. Hard and soft together.

LIFE CHINA

TIBET

by Sheila Rock

2013

THE GUARDIAN

Anarchy in the UK: the early years of punk

Sheila Rock’s captivating photographs of punk, which have been made into a sumptuous book, document the scene in her exciting childhood. Nearly 40 years later, he explains why he never imagined his work would turn out to be so significant

VOGUE DAILY

Rebel Rouser: Sheila Rock Photographs the Scene in Punk+

“I was never a punk, I was too bourgeois,” Sheila Rock says with a laugh. “The closest I’ve ever gotten was wearing black jeans.” Rock is an American photographer who has lived in Britain since 1970, and perhaps this removal is why her on-the-fly images of the igniting London punk scene in the mid-1970s, and its subsequent explosion across the rest of the country , are so beautifully raw and utterly enthralling. Both qualities are on full display in the images she contributed to the Costume Institute exhibition catalog “Punk: Chaos To Couture” (opening May 9), as well as in her limited edition book, Punk+ (First Third Books, to be released on April 29).

VOGUE

Sheila Rock Celebrates Punk Spirit

Legendary music photographer Sheila Rock will launch her new book, Punk+, on April 25 at Browns with an exhibit and autographs from 6-8pm. The image-based tome is a visual documentation of the punk movement in London, featuring never-before-seen shots of seminal musicians including The Clash, Chrissie Hynde, Paul Weller and The Sex Pistols. The photo collection had previously been stored in a box in Rock’s garden shed.

“I looked at how much work I had actually done in that moment and realized that I actually captured an interesting moment in time on many levels,” Rock told us. “The photographs spoke so much about youth culture and how music and fashion merge. It was a testament to youth and the ways people need to be creative.”