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Iconic images of the heyday of punk rock in New York City.
New York Punk captures New York's Lower Eastside when a new blending of music, fashion, and social protest was being born in the late '70s and early '80s. Ebet Roberts's iconic images have come to define an entire generation of musicians and fans. She brought an artist's eye to documenting this scene, befriending many of its leading performers and preserving a rich period of musical experimentation and innovation for our time.
With just a camera and a makeshift darkroom, Roberts became a prominent photographer at New York's premier punk rock clubs. She attended dozens of shows and parties, had limitless access backstage, and photographed up-and-coming performers, from Blondie to Talking Heads to the Sex Pistols, as well as scenesters Andy Warhol, Nico, and Lou Reed. For the first time, this remarkable visual record is available as a testament to punk's enduring legacy and to Roberts's unique eye as a photographer.
"Ebet Roberts was in the scene and in the moment—a bright soul immersing herself in the sea of creative energy exploding in NYC in the late 1970s and early 1980s, never missing the right second to snap the shutter. She 'got' Devo. She was an artist and a cheerleader for a musical and cultural revolution that seems almost apocryphal to recount now. Her camera froze those moments in time that still resonate today and tell a story beyond words." — Gerald Casale, Devo cofounder, singer/songwriter, video and commercial director
"Ebet Roberts aimed her camera lens at the creative maelstrom that was downtown NYC in the 1970s and 1980s, emerging with a visual convergence of music and art caught in its moment of transcendent happening. Her photos reflect a camaraderie with her subjects, the graceful and unobtrusive way in which she locates their most candid and revealing selves, and her own disarming presence as she snaps the shutter. A beautiful record of Then as it becomes Now." — Lenny Kaye, guitarist and author of Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll
"Ebet Roberts, a painter who took up photography as an artistic pursuit, not a journalistic profession, earned intimate access to musical moments that would soon be gone forever. One word got around that she had pictures of the bands magazine and newspapers were beginning to cover, her art project became her work. The evidence, documented here, is historic: unguarded images of legends in the making, caught in the small-bore nascence of their careers before success snatched them away." — Ira Robbins, co-founder of Trouser Press magazine
"Ebet Roberts' evocative photography not only dazzles the eyes but gives insight into the real people behind their punk-rock personas. It also indelibly captures a punk scene that I'll never forget." — Holly George-Warren, author of Punk 365 and A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll
"What we love about Ebet's images is their realness and unpretentiousness, much like Ebet herself. She seems to have a sixth sense about what is important in our culture. She just arrives at a performance in a club or a theater and captures that moment of magic. Ebet never fails to get the shot with clarity and sensitivity and we feel very lucky to have been among her subjects." — Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, members of Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club
"I've seen Ebet taking photos next to me for decades and I'm excited for her that there is finally this book to make her work available and everyone can see how good it is." — Bob Gruen, Rock & Roll Photographer
"Roberts' photographs are the closest things to being there. They are visceral and touching. Roberts has the rare ability to both artist and historian." — Gail Buckland, curator and author of Who Shot Rock and Roll: A Photographic History, 1955-Present
Ebet Roberts's work has been syndicated and exhibited worldwide and reproduced in innumerable publications, including Rolling Stone, Spin, Playboy, the New York Times, and the Village Voice. They are also featured prominently in Blank Generation Revisited: The Early Days of Punk Rock; This Ain't No Disco: The Story of CBGB; and The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock: Trouble Girls, among others. Her photographs have also been widely exhibited and are in permanent collections of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Museum, and the Hard Rock Cafe. She lives in New York City.
1. Ebet Roberts Eye Dream
Thurston Moore
2. The Mind's Eye: Ebet Roberts
Bruce VanWyngarden
Prologue
Ebet Roberts