the (real) day of the lords: joy division

I am a big fan of Joy Division as you know and incredibly thrilled to post these newly published images by the man who consistently photographed the band: Kevin Cummins. His private press book "Juvenes" (published by To Hell With Publishing in a limited edition of 200 - naturally completely sold out within 2 days for 200 British Pounds a pop) pushes Anton Corbijn's (Control) vision back into the arch shadows.

There are many versions of events, but then there are indisputable facts. Kevin Cummins took pictures of Joy Division from their inception as Warsaw right through until their sudden tragic demise. He lived in Manchester around the band and knew them all intimately as friends. This is not the case with the photographer Anton Corbijn, director of last year’s high-profile movie “Control”, who only actually photographed the band a couple of times. And while Corbijn’s great Joy Division imagery will always stand the test of time (that awful “Atmosphere” video apart), the photos of Kevin Cummins reveal many more sides to Ian Curtis, Bernard Albrecht, Steven Morris and Peter Hook.


Among the pictures included were these of Joy Division at the fabled Art And Furniture store on Manchester’s Chapel Walks. Here we get the chance to imagine Curtis, the JG Ballard obsessive, and band mates as if time warped to a Nineties private members club. “That place was so ahead of its time,” concurs Kevin Cummins. “The guy who owned the shop was Jonathan Silver, a contemporary of David Hockney. He had some great art in that place. I bought a framed Allen Jones screen print off him that day actually. Ian Curtis had bought his wedding suit from Jonathan’s clothes shop. His were the only places in Manc to get decent stuff and it made a great, very unrock-‘n’roll, location."

Such alternative angles on the hackneyed Joy Division myth are further revealed with the timely release of the film Joy Division, scripted by Jon Savage and directed by Grant Gee. At a talk following the first screening, Joy Division’s sleeve designer Peter Saville tactfully avoided panning 2007's Control. Offstage he’s less circumspect. “Yes, that film was not very good. It’s great there’s another better film that’s been made already.”

I just can't get enough of Joy Division!!