Chris Duffy

Taking photographs soon became a way of life for Chris after he was given a camera at the age of 8 but it wasn’t until he was 17 that he started to take or at least tried to take what he would consider a ‘relevant’ photograph. Chris’ grew up with the influence of his father’s friends and peers; David Bailey and Terence Donovan with their numerous debates on photography around the kitchen table. It was inevitable that photography would have a huge influence on his life. He is perhaps the only photographer to have assisted all three nicknamed by Parkinson as The Black Trinity.

At 17 Chris began work as a trainee processor in a photo lab but after a year started assisting Duffy as a third assistant quickly working his way up to studio manager. Chris worked and traveled the world with Duffy for nearly seven years and in 1979 established his own studio. During the 80’s Chris worked as one of the top music photographers (Bowie/Adam Ant/Steve Strange/Sade/Spandau etc..) as well as numerous other commissions covering a wide range of genres. Chris later moved into shooting moving images forming a film production company with Duffy and were successful shooting both commercials and pop promos.

Chris moved to LA in the early 90’s working as a director of photography and in 1997 was drawn back to the energy and creativity of London riding high on the wave of ‘Cool Britannia’. Over the years Chris had discussed with his father (Brian) Duffy about looking back at his work and creating an archive however it wasn’t until 2005 when Brian was diagnosed with a degenerative lung disease that together they started sifting through all of Duffy’s remaining photographic material. This process of sorting, logging, scanning and printing took three years and in 2009 the Duffy Archive was finally launched. Interest in Duffy’s work has grew exponentially and Chris stepped back from his own commercial work to dedicate himself to running the archive full time.