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Roberta Bayley — Fine Art Prints

55 available works

Roberta Bayley was present at the genesis of punk, and therefore at the genesis of its visual construction. She worked the door at CBGB and became chief photographer of Punk magazine, the publication that gave the movement its name, and she photographed the scene from inside it, with a singular eye and a particular sensibility.

She made the photograph that became the cover of the Ramones' first album in 1976, and the collection includes the contact sheet from that session. Alongside it are her photographs of the Ramones at CBGB, Debbie Harry and Blondie in New York and Las Vegas, Richard Hell for the cover of Blank Generation, the Heartbreakers, David Johansen, and the Sex Pistols on their American tour in 1978.

Her work is not reportage at a distance. These are photographs of people she knew, made in the rooms where the music was actually happening, and they remain the primary visual record of what downtown New York looked like in those years.

The collection presents hand-signed photographs available exclusively through TMPG | The Music Photo Gallery, including original cibachrome prints made from her colour work. Each work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a secure digital provenance record.