He now works predominantly in fashion and style/culture photography,[9][10] working with fashion designers such as Stephen Jones, Basso & Brooke and Atsuko Kudo. He is known in part for his photography of fetish subjects,[11][12] for creating sets and shooting on location using lighting techniques that explore the textures and cut of his subjects.[citation needed]
Unusually for a rock photographer, Ashworth worked mostly with the large, square format Hasselblad cameras because, as he reasoned, ‘album covers are square’.[23]
Fashion
Through his initial work with musicians and designers in the eighties, Ashworth came into contact with fashion designers and moved into the area of fashion photography, working with designers such as British milliner Stephen Jones OBE,[24][25][26][27] (both Ashworth and Jones working together with Visage and Steve Strange)[21]) - Jones using Ashworth's portrait on his first business card in 1979.[28][15]
Ashworth has also worked and with British fetish designers Murray & Vern, Basso & Brooke, and Atsuko Kudo. In 1992, Ashworth photographed the ‘Skin Two Collection 3: Murray & Vern’ catalogue, art-directed and designed by Skin Two editor Tony Mitchell.
Ashworth's photographic work with the avant-garde performance artist and fashion model Leigh Bowery was featured in a 2012 celebration of Bowery's life entitled Xtravaganza: Staging Leigh Bowery[29][30] that was held at the Kunsthalle Wien museum in Vienna, Austria.
Musician
In 1980, Ashworth - using the pseudonym Triash - as briefly a member of the band The The with Matt Johnson, appearing on the single "Controversial Subject" as drummer and vocalist.[31] In 1982–1983, he played drums as a member of Marc and the Mambas, appearing on their debut album Untitled and photographing the album's cover;[32] and again as band percussionist and album photographer for their follow-up album, Torment and Toreros[33]
Ashworth was also drummer in The The's Matt Johnson’s side project The Gadgets,[34] who produced one album in 1983, The Blue Album.
Other
The ubiquity of Ashworth’s photographic work with music artists in the eighties led to him being mentioned in Mari Wilson’s UK Top 10 hit song[35] ‘Just What I Always Wanted’
[36][16] (The lyrics also namecheck the song's writer, Teddy Johns, though 'Teddy' is often misheard as 'Tenney')[37]
“I've got a mink from Paris, a ring from Rome
A whole new wardrobe in my home
A tune from Teddy, an Ashworth snap
These are the landmarks on my map
I've got just what I always wanted”
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