Ladbroke Grove, London 1979 © Janette Beckman
In the mid-1970s, British photographer Janette Beckman tells VICE, she left her home in London to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. “I decided, ‘I’m leaving home. I’m going to be an artist and take drugs!’” she says with a laugh, sitting in the kitchen of her Manhattan loft.
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She moved into a semi-squat in Streatham filled with art students and rented a floor for the impressive fee of £5 a week from an eccentric professor who taught at London University. “He was a spiritualist and was in touch with his dead wife,” Beckman reveals, before going on to recount summers spent at the professor’s nudist camp just outside the city, where they grew weed in the backyard.
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Beckman completed her studies at the London College of Printing, then got a job teaching photography to teens at the Kingsway Princeton School for Further Education in 1976 just as punk exploded on the scene. Entranced by the raw energy taking aim at the establishment, Beckman found the perfect subject to launch her four-decade photography career.
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With the publication of Raw Punk Streets UK 1979-1982 (Café Royal Press), Beckman delves deep into her archives, unearthing never-before-seen images of the UK punk scene in its formative years. We catch up with Beckman to discuss the D.I.Y. ethos that became the basis for punk—and her life’s work, which includes photographs of everyone from the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and X to Debbie Harry, Dee Dee Ramone, and Siouxsie Sioux.
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Punk Girl, London 1979 © Janette Beckman
The Islington Twins, London 1979 ©Janette Beckman