Corio photographed performances, but he particularly relished the time backstage with the artists and bands, providing an alternative, less curated view of them. “A lot of the time, you’d just knock on the dressing room door, walk right in, and take two or three pictures at the most,” he says. “I try not to be noticed and try to take candid pictures that capture their personality, rather than me trying to give them an image.”
He even famously blagged his way into Marvin Gaye’s legendary concert at Royal Albert Hall, the only photographer standing in the pit. “Everyone was dressed to the nines, and there was just me, alone at the front,” he says. “It felt like Marvin was singing just to me.”
But such opportunities were few and far between, especially for a scrappy upstarted determined to make a way. He was determined to get inside the rooms few could go, knowing full well most times he would only get one shot. “Backstage,” he says, “you either get it or you don’t.”
