David Corio was born in London, England, in 1960. He began his professional career in 1978 taking photographs for New Musical Express, followed by The Face, Time Out, and Black Echoes, covering a wide range of music and portraiture. After a stint as a music writer at City Limits, he worked as a freelance photographer for the Daily Telegraph, The Times, Q, Theatre Royal Stratford, and Greensleeves Records, among others.

David’s photographs have been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Photographer’s Gallery, The Hayward Gallery, the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art) and the Special Photographers Gallery in London; the Brownwyn Keenan Gallery, The Jack Shainman Gallery and Fotografiska in New York; the Tropen Museum in Amsterdam; Number One Gallery in Dublin and in Italy, Japan, Sweden, France, Malaysia and Hong Kong. A selection of his photographs appeared in 'Diva' at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2024, which also toured, and in 2023 The Elliott Gallery in Amsterdam held a major retrospective of his music photography.

David has lived and worked in London and New York City, with his work having been published in the New York Times, The Times, the Telegraph, The Face, Rolling Stone, Q and Mojo. He has also worked for the School of Visual Arts, the Swedish Institute, New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers, Greensleeves Records, VP Records, Heartbeat Records, Universal Music Group, EMI and Island Records.

A comprehensive collection of David's photographs of Black musicians was published in 'The Black Chord' (Universe, 1999, text by Vivien Goldman). A newly redesigned and expanded version of the book was published by Hat & Beard Press in 2024. 'Megaliths', a 14-year project photographing the prehistoric standing stones of England and Wales was published by Jonathan Cape/Random House in 2003 and is set to be published in expanded form in 2026. 'The Couture Accessory' (text by Caroline Rennolds Milbank), a book of haute couture accessories, was published by Abrams in 2002.