Abbey Road Studios announce winners of first ever Music Photography Awards

Abbey Road Studios held their first ever Music Photography Awards (MTAs) last night (May 14) – see the list of winners below.

Announced back in February, the first ever MPAs celebrated the best music photography of 2021, with awards voted for by a panel including Moses Sumney, Shygirl and David Bowie photographer Rankin.

Among the winners of last night’s ceremony, held at Abbey Road, was Eric Johnson, who won the Icon Award for his legendary photographs of the late ’90s and early ’00s New York hip-hop scene, including famous shots of Biggie Smalls, Aaliyah, Nas, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill and many more.

Abbey Road’s Managing Director Isabel Garvey said of the awards: “Everyone at Abbey Road Studios is thrilled with the quality of the entries and winners in our first Music Photography Awards. More broadly, we’re also incredibly encouraged by the way in which the MPAs has been embraced across the arts and creative landscape.

“It’s been brilliant to create a platform to recognise emerging and established talent in this important field, and we’re already looking forward to doing it all again in 2023!”

See the full list of winners below:

We are proud to have played a part in recognising the year’s most unforgettable, unique, and unsung moments in music photography for the inaugural Abbey Road Studios Music Photography Awards 2022!

Full gallery: https://t.co/LFInyZQ94M

Until next year, keep on snapping! #MPA22 pic.twitter.com/FBTkGQeRxp

— Abbey Road Studios (@AbbeyRoad) May 15, 2022

Championing Scenes

Megan Doherty (winner)
Above Ground
Rob Jones
Chris Suspect
Cicely Ellison

Live

John Lyons (winner)
Anthony Harrison
Gary Mather
Jérôme Brunet

Studio

Jack McKain (winner)
Natalie Michele
Indy Brewer
Neelam Khan Vela
Aysia Marotta

Zeitgeist

Chris Suspect (winner)
Riccardo Piccirillo
DeShaun Craddock
Alec Castillo
Jason Sheldon

Undiscovered

Joe Puxley (winner)
Jada & David Parrish
Oscar Hetherington
Hana Kovacs
Thomas Weidenhuapt

Artist At Work

Greg Noire (winner)
Jack McKain
Jennifer McCord
CJ Harvey
Dean Chalkley
Above Ground

Editorial

Samuel Trotter (winner)
Yana Yatsuk
Craig McDean
David LaChapelle
Fernando Aceves
Paul Sepuya

Portrait

Yana Yatsuk (winner)
Aidan Zamiri
Vicky Grout
Lucas Garrido
Nicholas O’Donnell
Josiah Rundles

Last August, Abbey Road ran an open house event to mark 90 years of recording, with ‘Abbey Road: Open House’ giving visitors the opportunity to explore all three of the original recording rooms made famous by artists including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Oasis, Kanye West, Adele, Ed Sheeran and Frank Ocean.

It was announced at the start of 2021 that a new documentary about Abbey Road Studios was in development, with Mary McCartney set to direct.

If These Walls Could Sing is set to be the first feature-length documentary about the iconic studios, produced by Mercury Studios – the must-first content studio from Universal Music Group.