Born in Balmain, Sydney in 1965, I grew up without any consideration to take serious photographs, or photographs whatsoever.
To this day I do not recall owning any camera during my youth, and whatever photographs I have from that time are ones with myself included in them, obviously taken by others.
By the time I reached my late teens in 1982 I was fully immersed in the world of heavy metal music, that was when partying and thousands of metal gigs took precedence. One of my huge regrets in life is that I wasn’t a photographer back then, documenting the crazy world of long hair, head banging and a metal gig anywhere in Sydney, every weekend.
It wasn’t until 2013 that I actually first purchased a camera and began studying the craft. The first year or so was spent wandering around the city and aimlessly pointing the camera toward anything, with the camera set in auto mode.
By the time I first started shooting gigs in 2015 I had progressed to manual camera controls which was a huge leap at the time - yikes!
Since 2015 I have studied various photographic genres, and initially my main passions were landscapes, portraits and live music, however this has now shifted toward predominantly street and general urban environments.
Please take a look through my galleries, and if you like my work and you would like to enquire about purchasing prints then please complete the details on my 'contact me' page.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Roger Brooks.
“These days I think about photographic opportunities constantly, whether that be identifying concepts through reading photography books etc at home, or on the street where I’m always watching how light falls into areas and I’m deciding whether an interesting image can be made there.
I am also inspired by photographs taken many decades ago, allowing me to look back fondly on a time now long gone.
Our world is moving at such a rapid pace and therefore if we don’t document our time now whilst we still can, then later will be too late.”
Whilst I wasn’t taking pictures relating to music in the 80’s, I do now have a large selection of pictures from years of shooting gigs for various media outlets. Click on the button below to see the favourite live music pictures that I’ve taken over the years, or what’s new in my world of photography.