Tunbridge Wells exhibition showcases Steve Read celebrity photos

A photographer who spent the 1990s capturing some of the world’s biggest celebrities has opened an exhibition of his work in Tunbridge Wells.

Steve Read worked for magazines including Talk and Loaded, photographing stars such as JK Rowling, Eminem, Sharon Osbourne and Lennox Lewis.

Now an exhibition called Shooting Stars Pays the Rent is displaying images from the period at The Claremont pub in his home town.

“It was kind of a golden era of celebrity and magazines that doesn’t exist any more,” he said.

Read spent much of the decade working in Los Angeles.

“I’d be waiting for a call and they’d say: ‘Do you want to do Eminem? Do you want to do Sharon and Ozzy?’ It was amazing, it was such an incredible experience,” he said.