David Corio

In this photo Lee 'Scratch' Perry is at Mad Professor’s Ariwa studio in south east London where he was voicing and mixing some productions he was working on. 
Lee Perry is a photographer’s delight. He never fails to perform for the camera on or off-stage. On this night he hammed it up by riding a broomstick in honour of Halloween and made a different pose with every snap of the shutter. Because of his sense of fun and drama I got an incredible variety of shots despite discovering I only had one roll of film with me. Photos from this session have appeared on at least seven Lee Perry album covers. Some people think Scratch is mad but in reality he is an eccentric genius in full control - some of the time at least.

David Corio was born in London, England, in 1960. He began his professional career in 1978 taking photographs for New Musical Express, followed by The Face, Time Out, and Black Echoes, covering a wide range of music and portraiture. After a stint as a music writer at City Limits, he worked as a freelance photographer for the Daily Telegraph, The Times, Q, Theatre Royal Stratford, and Greensleeves Records, among others.

David’s photographs have been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Photographer’s Gallery, The Hayward Gallery, the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) and the Special Photographers Gallery in London; the Brownwyn Keenan Gallery, The Jack Shainman Gallery and Fotografiska in New York; the Tropen Museum in Amsterdam; Number One Gallery in Dublin and in Italy, Japan, Sweden, France, Malaysia and Hong Kong. A selection of his photographs appear in 'Diva' at the Victoria & Albert Museum until April 2024 and will tour to several cities around the world and in October 2023 The Elliott Gallery at Tussen de Bogen 91, 1013 JB Amsterdam will have a major retrospective of his music photography.

20 × 16 inches (unframed)

50.8 × 40.6 cm (unframed) 

Courtesy of the Artist.