Los Angeles Punk Rock 1980-1985

I was born and raised in Los Angeles California, living mostly in the San Fernando Valley. Bought my first camera in January 1980 (Chinon CM3) and decided to document the L.A. punk scene. I frequented the local clubs, Whisky A Go-Go, The Starwood, Godzilla’s, Cathay De Grande, Hong Kong Café and the much larger venues, Stardust Ballroom, Devonshire Downs, The Olympic Auditorium and The Vex, photographing some of my favorite bands such as Black Flag, The Minutemen, The Plugz, Fear, X, Darby Crash Band, The Stains, Red Cross, Circle Jerks, The Adolescents, TSOL, etc. The transition from the first generation punk of the late 1970's to hardcore punk of the early 1980's was in full swing. The mindset was to destroy the current majority culture of outdated ideals, Ronald Reagan politics, the corporate music industry, and create something new for “our” generation. What evolved was the DIY work ethic. Do it yourself record companies and distribution, clubs, fanzines, promotions, band tours, fan base networking. This DIY ethic has created me as a person---a self-taught photographer, artist, and musician. The photos I present are in some respects a self-portrait, and a view of Los Angeles, its history and culture.

Photos are available as color or b/w digital (D), or b/w fiber (F) base silver gelatin, and optical machine processed color prints. For digital prints the negative is scanned at a high resolution then processed, keeping the original integrity of the image. The b/w fiber base prints are darkroom hand processed, printed directly from the negative on to Ilford archival paper with a matte finish.The color optical machine processed prints are printed on DNT Type C archival paper with a matte finish. The dimensions of prints reflect the size of the paper, while the actual image itself may vary in size due to cropping.

The Los Angeles Punk Rock 1980-1985 Archive images are available for licensing for editorial usage and documentary film productions. The book is now available through Blurb.

Galleries ~ Justine : Vince : LA Punk : On Assignment : Portraits and Publicity : Mixed Media & Collaboration