Denis O'Regan's career path was determined by the shows he saw growing up - The Beatles in the Sixties, David Bowie and Queen at the Hammersmith Odeon, and Led Zeppelin at Alexandra Palace in the Seventies. Denis had no formal photographic training even though he was offered a place at Ealing Art College, previously attended by Pete Townsend and Freddie Mercury - his parents instead insisted he accept an insurance brokerage job he'd been offered in The City.

Just before moving to Lloyd's of London Denis toured Europe on a student rail pass, and his future was cast in stone - photography and travel. He borrowed his uncle's camera to photograph David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust from the audience, and smuggled in his own £5 Zenith to capture Queen at the Hammersmith Odeon. Having blushed at asking Elton John for directions at Queen's management office, Denis made his first sale - £12.

Photo passes were difficult to come by without a portfolio, and compiling one was somewhat hampered by a lack of images. A spot of subterfuge secured the necessary credentials to photograph Deep Purple, Peter Frampton and other stars of the mid Seventies, but the impact of Punk was about to reverberate through the music business, and it provided Denis with access to the 'new guard' for the price of a 50 pence ticket to The Marquee, The Vortex, or any one of the clubs spawning the young perpetrators of Punk.

Denis made his way to his first Punk gig - The Damned - at the most unusual of venues: Mill Hill school in North London. Now owning a camera but no flashgun Denis borrowed one from fellow photographer Chalkie Davies, the doyen of the 'old guard' of photographers, who seemed ill at ease with the spit and spite of Punk. Chalkie suggested that the young upstart submit his pictures to NME. Denis soon resigned from his day job, and over the next two years found his work published widely across the 'Inkies' - in 1978 he was NME's major contributor, photographing everyone from The Clash to Throbbing Gristle.

As colour returned to the face of music in the early Eighties, Denis found his photographs attracting the attention of German and Japanese music magazines. This coincided with the emergence of New Romaticism - and artists such as Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet - both of whom Denis accompanied on world tours. He toured Europe with the Rolling Stones and spent two years travelling the world as David Bowie's official photographer. He also took on the role of official Live Aid photographer and conceived and co-ordinated the record selling commemorative book. Official books for David Bowie, Queen, and Duran Duran followed.

In the Nineties Denis documented Pink Floyd's last world tour, and from 1996 was commissioned by MTV to exclusively shoot their European Music Awards for four consecutive years. As the technology of the 21st Century beckoned, he founded - in 1999 - the UK's most successful music download site, which briefly burned brightly before the 'dotcom crash'. He then set up an innovative music software company before building this web site, which offers an insight into his career via 3000 images and anecdotes.

Denis is still shooting, having covered Duran Duran's reformation, Coachella festival - and Live 8 in Hyde Park as official live photographer. His photographs consistently appear in the press and in exhibitions across the UK. Denis' prints are avidly collected and various limited edition books are in pre-production.

< back