Repfoto
evolved from the work of photographer Robert Ellis. I began in
the late sixties working on local newspapers before turning my
attention to the emerging 'Folk' scene. I used to frequent a club
of a Sunday night called 'The Fuggle & Pippin' in the back room
of a pub in Malvern, buried in the English midlands. All traditional
english songs, fingers in ears and curious instruments. The club
joined a regional booking circuit for itinerant and visiting
folk singers. Soon, top flight singers and bands were turning
up and they, in turn, were regaling the audience with stories of
other singers, places and happenings. A large contingent of club
members pitched up at the 2nd Cambridge Folk Festival in 1968 on
these recommendations. Here I met Karl Dallas, the senior folk writer for leading UK music paper
Melody Maker. The next week saw my pictures (of Tom Paxton!)
in Karl's column.
In the late sixties, the electric version of folk
music was just taking hold of the folk scene, but the emerging heavy
rock revolution was sweeping all before it. I
made a pilgrimage to London's Royal Albert Hall to witness Tommy
by the Who (just
turned up with my camera at the stage door!) This was a defining moment.
Within two years, the MM's rival, the
New Musical Express, decided to abandon its American Pop policy,
hire a new editor and embrace the English Rock
Revolution. So, I moved to London in 1971 and worked for the NME
for the next four years. Then a friend, colleague and inspiration,
Barrie Wentzell, quit the MM and recommended me to replace him.
Coinciding with that event, the apathy of NME to the major rock
bands of the day was a problem, as I was heavily
in demand as a touring photographer by those very same bands, (eg
ELP, Genesis, Wings, Status Quo).
So within a week of leaving NME in 1975, I accepted the MM's offer but
my tenure did not last long as I was soon whisked off by Paul McCartney to be official photographer on the 'Wings Over America' tour in 1976 which kept me in the States for several months.
In the late seventies many other Rock orientated newspapers and magazines began to be popular and demand for images of these new stars was increasing. Sounds, and then Kerrang beckoned. By the early eighties, other photographers, most notably new guys working in the Rock and Heavy Metal genre, were asking if I could place their photographs in the magazines I was
by this time supplying worldwide. Repfoto was born. Its name is derived from Robert Ellis Photography with FOTO tacked on as a nod to the major market for Rock images in Europe - Germany. It never set out to rival the bigger agencies. Its purpose was to help support and further the careers of its contributing photographers. Credits and a decent percentage of sales in a highly specialised marketplace was what it was all about.
In the early nineties, I gave up being a working photographer. It was obvious that the demands of Repfoto were more exacting and challenging than the demands of Rock Bands. They got better organised. Lawyers and Accountants took control and limited the work opportunities and incomes of those photographers like me 'lucky' enough to get more than three songs live. The media still paid good money for the picture usage rights and this was a heyday for all. Then the Internet arrived.
At the end of the nineties, anyone in the know would say, get on the web within five years or go out of business. Not five years as it turned out. Two. Such was the rush of enthusiasm. It wasn't hard to see the attraction. No more sending out expensive dupes, or worse, precious originals. Cheap fast broadband to replace the expensive slow ISDN, Digital delivery in the best quality - better in many cases than the hard copy original so, consequentially, reviving many miles of film deemed after the original processing to be too dark or light to use. The arrival of DSLR camera equipment offering ever better image resolution and quality to rival, match and finally surpass film from SLR cameras. Control over client use and payment such as never before possible. No more couriers back and forth. What could possibly go wrong?