We present surface photometry of the irregular galaxy NGC 3077 using two data sets: photographic plates and CCD images. Isophotal contours, luminosity and colour distributions as well as position angle and ellipticity curves show that NGC 3077 is similar to an elliptical galaxy in the outer regions with a disturbed blue centre. The outer isophotes 22‐25 mag/arcsec2 are approximately centred on the dynamical centre, showing no clear evidence of the interaction with M81, the inner ones are disturbed by the dominant contribution of a reddened young population.