His mother, Joan, was from the north east of England, growing up in county Durham, before coming to London to study English and then finding work at the BBC, where she met Harry.
Early work for NME, Melody Maker, Smash Hits, POP and Spin quickly extended to other publications, and commissions from record companies, musicians, designers and artists internationally.
He was one of the photographers chosen to document the Live Aid concert in 1985 and was the largest single contributor to the subsequent exhibition and book.
[citation needed] Each piece was shot as a set of images designed to interact in multiple dimensions, combining elements of time, movement, rhythm, narrative and graphic structure, while remaining within an essentially documentary framework.
In his essay "Nine Hastings Photographers" Vasileios Kantas proposes that "Andrew Catlin's imagery formations could be considered as a study on perception.
"[6]In 2021 he produced an exhibition and book of portraits, Rebel Song, exploring the connections of history and faces of Irish music.
What's so extraordinary about the book is that its author, photographer Andrew Catlin, is an Englishman, who knew nothing about Irish history at the outset.
Catlin says "Many of the references in Irish songs – people and places that in Ireland carry a heavy weight of history – have no meaning at all in England.
"[7]His photography is held in major collections and archives worldwide, ranging from The National Portrait Gallery in London[8] to the Schwules Museum in Berlin.