Rozsa was born and raised in Nairobi, the son of Jewish Hungarian-Czech parents. His grandmother, Selma Leibschutz, a survivor of Auschwitz and Terezin helped raise him in Kenya. In the early 1960s he moved to England, where he attended Repton, graduating in 1967
Training and career
Rozsa studied architecture, painting, and communications at Manchester College of Art and Design], and communications at Polytechnic of Central London. Afterwards, he interned at Vogue under Barney Wan. He later ran a vintage shop called Nostalgia in Covent Garden, where he met fashion editors, models, actors, and photographers on a daily basis. In the late 1970s Rozsa began his photography career, working in Nairobi, Kenya, London, England and the U.S. By 1978, he had a series of four full-page celebrity portraits in Ritz, with accompanying interviews. Johnny Rozsa collaborated with top Japanese hairstylist Fumio Kawashima, who is the owner of Peek A-Boo salons in Tokyo, on six published books shot in different locations including Los Angeles, New York, Rio de Janeiro and London Rozsa has been photographing celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, and Natasha Richardson since the late 1970s. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications, including Vogue, the Sunday Times, The Observeri-D, Maxim, The Face, The New York Times, and People. His portraits of Ian Charleson, Sade, Marilyn, and Martin Degville are part of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London. His photographs of Leigh Bowery have been exhibited in several museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Kunsthalle in Vienna, and the Kunstverein in Hanover. Rozsa has also exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
''Untouched''
In 2010 Rozsa published a book, Untouched, featuring unretouched photos of 115 now world-famous celebrities, from their days before airbrushing, PhotoShop, digital cameras and enhancements, cosmetic surgery, and perfect images. The book has a foreword by Susan Sarandon, and launched at Barneys in New York City.
