Chrissy Amphlett: my photographic infatuation

Back in the early ’80s I wandered into the Piccadilly Hotel, Kings Cross, on a rainy Monday night for a beer and to watch whatever resident band was playing. I got lucky: it was the Divinyls pre-record deal, playing ever Monday night. It was not long before I decided to try and capture on film the manic performances of one Chrissy Amphlett. Luckily, nobody but myself asked to see the photos–they were crap–however week-in week-out, I tried to capture her in all her glory, and slowly but surely I became better at it and so began a career as a rock photographer – for which I’ll always be indebted to her.

I’ve seen no-one since that compares. I got lucky, practicing the art of rock photography on Chrissy Amphlett. It was a complete joy; it’s times like this I wish I was a journalist, I’ve got the adjectives (there are so many to describe Chrissy) but getting them to say how fabulous, dangerous, unpredictable she was is nigh-on-impossible. Johnette Napolitana describes her as a complicated genius, which sort of fits – bloody hell, she took a song about female masturbation to the top ten around the world and made Madonna look lame.

I worked out I’ve photographed over 400 female artists live, and Chrissy is number one amongst them. To say I’m feeling a huge loss still doesn’t say it all; bloody hell, we just lost the strongest, most powerful voice and mover. No choreography for Chrissy, no bells and whistles, she meant every movement.

I had times when i was scared for her safety and the crowd’s safety, not to mention my own; rock ’n’ roll is built on myths and Chrissy’s stories abound and shock. Her clever trick at the time was to neither confirm or deny them, and so the urinating-on-stage-to-Elsie story grew…

I became good friends with Chrissy during the writing of her bookPleasure and Pain but at no point did I ever feel less intimidated by her, that’s just how she was – powerful.

A huge thank you to Chrissy for being Chrissy. Lots of love and best wishes to Charley and Chrissy’s family and friends. I want to say RIP, but that somehow doesn’t seem right.

Vale Chrissy xxxxo

– Visit TonyMott.com for more photography of Chrissie Amphlett.