Born in 1944 in New York City, Cummins attended New York City"s High School of Music & Art and studied art, drawing and painting at the New York City"s Museum of Modern Art, at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and at the Art Students League of New New York
He served from 1961 through 1965 in the United States. Marine Corps as a Combat Illustrator before beginning his career in music and sports photojournalism in 1965. From 1968 to the early 1980s, Cummins worked for Atlantic Records, Columbia Records, Capitol Records, Mercury Records, Savoy Records, Springboard Records and London Records, providing album cover photography for over 900 music album covers. Among the many music legends of this era who have had one or more of their music album cover photographs shot by Cummins are: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Miles, Burt Bacharach, Chuck Berry, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Glen Campbell, Miles Davis, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, The Who, The Temptations, Tina Turner, Vanilla Fudge, Velvet Underground, Wilson Pickett, Rascals, Dusty Springfield, Doctor John, Joe Cocker, Sam & Dave, Nancy Wilson, Roberta Flack, John Sebastian, Jimmy Page and Sly and The Family Stone.
