As I sit down I see her iconic photograph of Paul Simonon of The Clash smashing his bass guitar, which is used as the London Calling album cover. It was awarded ‘Q’S Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll photograph of All-Time.’ However Pennie couldn’t care less about awards. “I couldn’t give two hoots about it. I shoot for myself and not for other people” she says with a shrug. “It’s a nice pat on the back to be recognised but you have to keep your integrity. Otherwise when you take photographs you will just jump from award to award. It’s the difference from being employed and being paid. You have got to enjoy what you do”.
Pennie left school at age 14 and did not know what she wanted to pursue. “There’s no grand plan to my life ever. It’s just done along the way and when I realised I wasn’t suited to go to school I left” she says in her oversized t-shirt. “I was on the outside and didn’t easily fit into a structure especially one of school. I wasn’t stupid I just get bored very easily” she says laughing. “It just then happened that my cousin was telling me about her art school and I thought I would give it a shot. It turns out they only had 1 place left,” she says with a sigh of relief peering out from under her delicately framed glasses.
Simultaneously she boxes up a photograph of Debbie Harry and places it on the side to be posted. Pennie says “I had no desire to be a photographer. I don’t even class myself as one, I’m someone who takes pictures” she states modestly. While at Twickenham Art School Pennie kept in touch with her older peers and through this, she landed a job at NME. “I was working on a magazine which was political and underground and met Nick Kent who was a musician fanatic. He knew who we should interview and photograph. One day he said to me ‘we are going to NME and they are going to take us on’. And funnily enough this is what happened”. She continues by saying “I was snapping like you snap your auntie. It was documented and completely different to anything at the time but for me it was all I knew. By this time I had stacks of NME covers probably the most of anyone known to mankind” she says with a huff of laughter. “I guess people noticed my work and I was sent to do The Clash. We were on the road in the US for about a month and I was bored of taking pictures. I actually stopped shooting. Then I just snapped Paul one day and it became huge. It’s very angry but of course I have a soft spot for it” she says as she gazes at the photograph with her intense emerald eyes.
“I had a style and because of this bands kept me on like The Primals and Ian brown” she says pointing to the door of her darkroom studio. The secret passageway is decorated with rock memorabilia. The key chains are adorned with rock history with badges clipped on from the likes of NME and KERRANG! There are posters on the door and stickers stuck on in a colourful frenzy. There are backstage passes of Led Zeppelin, Oasis and U2 casually hung from the door handle.
“A rock photographer’s lifestyle is bloody hard work and you have to be comfortable with who you’re working with. Recently I was asked to shoot Mika and I couldn’t understand what I could do for him. I thought he was some pop manufactured singer then I realised it was because he was a bit bonkers like me so now I’m lined up for his next shoot” she says. For Pennie the best thing that has come out of her photography is that it allows her to be the free spirit that she is. “I could get fed up with it and be a driver tomorrow. But it has allowed me to be the Robin Hood that I am. I was never a pretty pink girl. I wanted adventure and in a way… this had made me the kid that I am.”
SONIA SHARMA
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