Tony Briggs (photographer)


Tony Briggs is an award winning British photographer best known for his celebrity photography, especially in the comedy genre, his music photography from the Britpop era and his men's fashion and portrait work throughout the 1990s. Originally from Sunderland, Briggs moved to London after leaving Newcastle College of Arts & Technology in 1985, where after a short contract shooting for the BBC he began working as a freelance photographer.

Career

Briggs has been a photographer and a director for over 25 years. He spent most of his early career working for London record companies Acid Jazz, Go! Discs, and MCA. He also worked for the London style magazines i-D magazine, working under then picture editor Nick Knight, The Face, and Dazed & Confused. He shot the first major fashion stories for Loaded magazine. He is credited as one of the first photographers to shoot Kate Moss when she was just 17 years old for The Face magazine in 1992. He is also credited as shooting the first sessions for Sacha Baron Cohen, Bill Bailey and Jimmy Carr. He has photographed Ricky Gervais, Karl Pilkington for The Asylum, Reginald D Hunter, Frankie Boyle, Jason Bryne, Jack Whitehall, Alfie Moore, Alan Davies, Stephen Fry, Steve Furst, Dom Jolly, Micky Flanagan, Al Murray, Sean Lock, John Shuttleworth, Simon Day, Daniel Kitson, Alexander Armstrong, Dylan Moran, Rhod Gilbert, Katy Brand and Lee Hurst. His photos have been used as the basis for comedy tour posters for Alan Davies' Life is Pain tour, Bill Bailey's Tinselworm tour, Micky Flanagan's The Out and Out tour and Frankie Boyle's The Last Days of Sodom tour.
He has worked with Paul Weller, Liam and Noel Gallagher, Portishead and Ocean Colour Scene. Briggs was Ocean Colour Scene's official photographer for MCA Universal Music from 1994 to 1999, shooting the covers of the Moseley Shoals and Marchin Already albums, and the singles "River Boat Song You've Got It Bad", "The Day We Caught the Train", "The Circle", "Hundred Mile High City", "Better Day", "Travellers Tune" and "Beautiful Thing" featuring PP Arnold. He also directed the promo videos for the remixed "Hundred Mile High City", "Better Day" and "It's a Beautiful Thing". He also photographed the band's later albums One for the Road and On the Leyline, also directing the promo video for "I Told You So".
During the last decade Briggs has shot many of the United Kingdom's best known chefs, including Heston Blumenthal, Antonio Carluccio, Omar Allibhoy, Gok Wan and Raymond Blanc.
In 2009 Briggs shot Keira Knightley for the Woman's Aid domestic violence campaign.
In 2010 Briggs featured in a commercial for Carl Zeiss AG. His photographs were the basis for the multiple award-winning National Drugs Helpline print campaign to educate clubgoers to the dangers of drugs.
In 2014 a concise review of Tony Briggs' work was published on HEIST on-line.

Exhibitions