My breakthrough: Kevin Cummins
Kevin Cummins, who filmed some of the world's greatest bands and worked as NME's chief photographer for a decade, ponders why his 2009 book Manchester: In Search of Light Through the pouring rain was a major turning point in his career
I think the idea of a breakthrough doesn't necessarily work because at different stages of your career you have different moments when something happens and takes you in a different direction. I had already written two books and then Faber & Faber got in touch to see if I would be interested in an autobiography and I thought, well, I haven't finished my life yet. I didn't feel like I really wanted to because as a photographer, especially when photographing celebrities, you are always pretty cautious about appearing as a boring guy in the corner of the pub telling his war stories.
We decided it might be pretty good to look at it as a focus rather than a career retrospective and just focus on the work I'd done with Manchester musicians because obviously I was originally from Manchester and it kind of made sense. I went to art school there and stayed in my hometown for quite a long time before moving to London in 1987 because I wanted to focus on shooting full time for the NME.
Pictured above and above: Stone Roses, captured by Kevin Cummins. All images courtesy of the artist
It took us almost four years to edit and compile the book. It wasn't until I started editing it that I realized how much archive I had. I've been shooting for the NME for so long and you are shooting so regularly that you don't really have time to sit there counting all of your pictures because you're already on the next task.