Roger Sargent
Roger Sargent has been described by The Guardian as “the UK’s most important music photographer”. He is a multi-award winning photographer, music video and film director. He is perhaps best known for his work with The Libertines, an ongoing communion of more than 20 years, during which he has amassed an unparalleled body of now iconic photographs. These include the cover photograph for their second album, 2004’s The Libertines. He also directed the 2011 documentary about the band, There Are No Innocent Bystanders, as well as music videos for “Gunga Din” and “Heart of The Matter”.
Roger Sargent was born in London in 1970 to a maverick English teacher mother and a father who filmed TV classics The Professionals and Minder; casting shadows further, one grandfather was the clapper boy on Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, the other invented the police siren. Roger’s transient childhood took in Somerset and South Africa, with a brief break in Gwent along the way.
After becoming a mod with a passion for punk rock, he joined Magnum legend David Hurn’s renowned documentary photography course at Newport College, but almost dropped out to go on the road with Fabulous, a band made up of NME Journalists and porn stars. On graduating – and following a brief sojourn at Melody Maker and I.D. Magazine – Roger went to NME, surviving trauma and trends for a decade. He also worked for Rolling Stone, Mojo, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian amongst others.
The virtual exhibition we present on this page marks the start of a series of planned collaborations with Roger Sargent. Make sure you sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date on all the news about future events.
Visit the virtual gallery
Click on the green button below to view our beautiful virtual reality gallery featuring a selection of Roger’s images framed and on display.
This isn’t a replica of our physical gallery space—far from it. It is a gallery that we have designed from scratch and that only exists in the virtual world. The space consists of three elements: a large central room with high ceilings and white walls, a mezzanine floor accessed by a spiral staircase, and a smaller, more personal viewing room with a feature brick wall. You can navigate around the space simply, and click on individual artworks to view price and size information. I hope you enjoy experiencing the virtual collection.
The limited editions
The images shown below are available to purchase as signed limited editions in a choice of physical sizes.
Click on the green button below each image to view the available options
Bagel Bakery
Bagel Bakery, Brick Lane, London
Roger Sargent reflects: This was part of the first session we did. The photographs were ‘binned’ for many years as the band were certainly embryonic in terms of their look. The band that launched dozens of fashion campaigns they were not. In retrospect though these pictures (and there are many) now have a certain timeless quality.
First shoot, first set up
First shoot, first set up, Bethnal Green, London
Roger Sargent remembers: Tony Linkin, the band’s publicist was also a long-suffering whipping boy during our shoots. Both Carl and Peter have razor sharp wit. I don’t recall what exactly was said but I know Carl is delivering cuttingly, humorous jibes Tony’s way.
Peter’s Bedroom
Peter’s bedroom, London
Roger Sargent remembers: When we arrived at Carl and Peter’s Bethnal Green flat at the assigned time, none of the band were there. Luckily Tony had a spare key. They introduced me to a new experience – a band being late to meet me in their own home! The lounge was a sight to behold. You literally could not see the floor for “knees up” detritus. The bath was full of washing up from the kitchen and the toilet didn’t flush. Turns out the water had been turned off and they’d resorted to filling it with bottled mineral water in order to expunge it’s contents.
Peter and Carl, CBGB
Peter and Carl in the toilet at CBGBs
Roger Sargent explains: I loved CBGB’s. It’s criminal that it was allowed to close—it’s more significant than The White House in my humble opinion. This is around the load in time, mid-afternoon, I’d been here before, the band had not, so I was winding them up about the great shows and bands who’d played before them. If I recall correctly the boys are reading Village Voice and checking out the preview for their show. Peter’s comedy cigarette is priceless.
Innocent
Innocent, Brick Lane, London
Roger Sargent remembers: Someone told me recently that the writing—a William Burroughs quote—was sprayed by Banksy. At the time his work, and that by other artists, was dotted around the east end. One of these shots became the cover for the documentary I made about the band. Apt sentiment.
Tour Bus
Carl and Peter on the tour bus between Birmingham and Manchester
Roger Sargent remembers: Fun, my overarching memory of working with The Libertines, despite all the pain and disappointments will always be one of fun. Four of the warmest, gentle, creative, intelligent and funniest people I’ve had the pleasure of pointing a camera towards.
Cherry Jam Beatles
Peter and Carl, Cherry Jam Beatles, London
Roger recalls: This was a pivotal show for me. I’d had enough of the music industry, I’d moved out of London and was considering my options. My good friend and Libertine’s publicist Tony ‘The Tiger’ Linkin convinced me to come and shoot the show for NME. The gig was crazy and chaotic which I loved. The pictures had a feel of Beatles in their Hamburg era.
Walking, Aberdeen
The Libertines walking in Aberdeen
Roger recalls: This is an alternative frame from the iconic shot of the boys walking in Aberdeen. I included it because it’s another example, admittedly through the retrospective spectacles, of Peter being (literally) out of step with the others. In these situations, the ideal is to get that feeling of unity, a gang. Very often Peter would drift off.
Peter with mirrored guitar
Peter with mirrored guitar, Albion Rooms, London
Roger Sargent explains: I always felt a little odd taking pictures of people ‘partaking’. It’s never something I’d do surreptitiously but even when asked by the protagonist it’s uncomfortable. I think mostly it comes from the (in my mind) implied betrayal of trust—that weeks later one would run to the tabloids—not that I ever have. I’ve included this only because I think it’s a great photo. A little bit naughty but also cautionary.
Last Gang
Last Gang, London
Roger Sargent explains: After the first day shooting the band, it seemed and felt like we’d got nothing. The expectations had been high, and the photos didn’t hit. They looked a little disparate. Like they didn’t belong together. We had another shoot planned a few days later and I suggested we get them wearing clothes to bring them together. Leather jackets, jeans etc. Like colours. Uniformity. The band took the uniformity suggestion very literally.
Red Jackets
The Libertines in red jackets, London
Roger Sargent explains: So, the band’s take on my request for uniformity, taken literally. There was a little hoo-ha about even shooting the band wearing these jackets because of perceived negative connotations from other bands. Menswear—of Britpop vintage—had worn something similar at some point, but I insisted we shoot them regardless. They just looked so good. It was the first time I remember shooting something and believing it to be iconic immediately. Again, few people agreed so the photos were “binned” for a year or so.
Recording The Libertines album
London, 2004
Recording their second album, The Libertines, Metropolis Studios, West London, Spring 2004
Roger Sargent recalls: Recording the second LP happened in fits and starts as I remember. Without Mick Jones things would have probably gone a lot worse. This was a band in the middle of bearing their collective souls in the most candid and brutal way possible.
Reformed
Reformed, London
Roger Sargent recalls: I’d never been particularly nervous or intimidated around a shoot with The Libertines before, but some time had passed since I’d seen Peter. I’d been shooting Carls band Dirty Pretty Things a lot and only seen Peter on a handful of occasions in six years. There was a ‘them’ or at least ‘him’ and ‘us’ feeling. At the time I was more concerned about my own feelings – Peter had become a kind of infamous tabloid figure and we read about him more than spent time with him. I could feel his nervousness and it made me feel more nervous. I feel stupid having thought this at the time, but it crossed my mind that the things we’d read might come true – he might smash things up or start a fight. Ludicrous how shitty tabloid spin can skew things.
East End Wasteland
East End Wasteland, London
Roger remembers: I didn’t scan or consider this photo until years after taking it. It didn’t work as a press photo, so it was ignored. Even in the early 2000’s east London was a little edgy in places with burnt out stolen cars and derelict buildings. In many ways it hadn’t really changed from when I moved back to London in the early late 80’s. I love the feeling of foreboding in this pic. I went back here a few years later with Peter to shoot some solo pics. We got swarmed on by police vans who thought we were doing a drug deal. Oh, the irony.
First NME cover session
A session image from the shoot for the first NME cover
Roger remembers: Shooting their first cover session was something of a French Farce. Peter and Carl would call me to see if the other had arrived so as they could out late each other. Many people have derided Peter for trashing a classic England shirt, what they don’t know is that it was the result of Carl trying to set him on fire— the cheeky monkey. Coincidently that shirt would cost you in the region of a monkey today.
Kate, Peter and Carl
Kate Moss, Peter and Carl at The Boogaloo Bar, North London, 18 April 2005
Roger Sargent recalls: This was one of many truly strange days. Carl had called me to say that he and Peter would be meeting up for the first time since the band split. They would be meeting in the Boogaloo and he wanted me come along for moral support—moral support under the guise of documenting the meet up. I stuck with him and knowing that Peter wouldn’t mind, and that it would diffuse the atmosphere a little, I snapped a few frames of the two embracing. Suddenly Kate plonked herself down next to the pair of them. It was quite frustrating because she clearly did it to get into the pictures—but then complained about my photographing her. I told her I’d rather she wasn’t in the pictures, but she didn’t move. Later, she took me aside and told me a bizarre story of how she’d had a photographer beaten up, like it was supposed to rattle me. It didn’t.
Reading Rehearsal
Rehearsing for the Reading Festival, Kings Cross, London
Roger Sargent reflects: It was such a genuinely joyful experience being at the first rehearsals when the band reformed. They’d been somewhat shoehorned together for the payday but who gives a fuck, hearing the first few bars of ‘Horror Show’ again was godlike.