Brian Aris began his photographic career as a photojournalist, working for a London agency. Over the next nine years, a series of frontline assignments took him around the world to cover the civil unrest and riots at the start of the troubles in Northern Ireland, the plight of Palestinian children in Jordan, the civil war in Lebanon, famine in Africa and war in Vietnam, where he worked until the final days of the conflict in Saigon.

He then decided on a complete change of direction and opened a studio in London where he started photographing fashion and glamour models for newspapers and magazines. His studio work was to include pop and rock stars such as Blondie, The Jam, The Clash, The Boomtown Rats, Roxy Music and The Police. And after three years, he turned away from the model world to concentrate on the music industry that was exploding in Britain.