Joe Dilworth’s Chronology By Emily McDermott
Growing up in London during the 1960s, the music scene was everything for Joe Dilworth. He read weekly music newspapers and, at age 16, started his first band with two friends—despite the fact that no one knew how to play an instrument. “Music was a constant presence,” he remembers. “How you saw the world was through music culture.” Now living in Berlin, Dilworth has played the drums in more than 25 bands and has photographed at least twice that number. He’s created the images on record sleeves for acts like Franz Ferdinand and My Bloody Valentine; taken intimate portraits of Feist, Nick Cave, and the Clash frontman Joe Strummer; and drummed for bands including Th’ Faith Healers and Stereolab, as well as his current trio, The Cavern of Anti-Matter. “You have to understand music culture to really photograph a band, and vice versa,” he says. “You need to have an understanding of both worlds.”
“Music was a constant presence,” he remembers. “How you saw the world was through music culture.”
Although his credits are now numerous, Dilworth’s entrance into the making of images was serendipitous, much like his haphazard start to drumming. In his early 20s, Dilworth looked up to Steve Pyke, a man he knew from the music scene and who was attending photography school. Pyke, however, “wasn’t getting along with it so well,” so Dilworth thought, “If I go to art school [instead of photography school], they’ll let me do what I want.” Shortly after, Dilworth enrolled in a fine art course at Goldsmiths in London and cemented his career as an artist. Following a short pause in our conversation, he admits that his interests also stemmed from family: “I have two sisters and one was in band and the other was taking pictures,” he says, “so they both inspired me, really.”
“You have to understand music culture to really photograph a band, and vice versa,” he says. “You need to have an understanding of both worlds.”
Outside of playing music and photographing musicians, Dilworth also co-owns and operates Bildband, a specialty bookstore and exhibition space in Berlin, as well as pursues personal photo projects. While his personal projects help him make sense of and document the world around him, Dilworth thrives on the collaborative aspects of his various endeavors. “Photography can be very solitary,” he explains. “It’s nice to do things together with people and have different aims.” He runs Bildband with a friend, so each have their own artistic practice but work together to bring in new books and plan exhibitions. “It’s the same with the band,” he continues. “It can’t work without all of us.”