From Mods and Punks to Ska and Hip-Hop, Photographer Documented Musical Subcultures of the 1970s and 1980s

   

Londoner Janette Beckman began her career at the dawn of punk rock working for The Face and Melody Maker. She shot bands from The Clash to Boy George as well as 3 Police album covers.

Moving to New York in 1982, she was drawn to the underground Hip Hop scene. Her photographs of pioneers such as Run DMC, Slick Rick, Salt’n’Pepa, Grandmaster Flash, Big Daddy Kane are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Museum and the Museum of the City of New York.
Beckman describes herself as a documentary photographer. While she produces a lot of work on location (such as the cover of The Police album Zenyatta Mondatta, taken in the middle of a forest in the Netherlands), she is also a studio portrait photographer.

Her work has appeared on records for the major labels, and in magazines including EsquireRolling StoneGlamourItalian VogueThe TimesNewsweekJalouseMojo and others.

In a 2015 interview with American Photo magazine, she recalled: “It is amazing, 30 years later, people going ‘oh you photographed legends.’ I guess I did, but they weren’t legends when I was taking pictures of them.”

 
Punks at Sid Vicious memorial march, 1979

 

Ska girls, 1980

 

Mod girl, 1976

 

John Cooper Clarke

 

Tenpole Tudor

 

Sex Pistols

 

Mods on scooter, 1976

 

Skinheads with flag at Loch Lomond festival, 1980

 

Mods, The Islington Twins, 1979

 

Boy, Kings Road, London, 1979

 

Joe Strummer

 

Dexys Midnight Runners

 

Shane MacGowan

 

Punks, 1978

 

Teds, 1979

 

Rock'n'Roll dancers, 1980

 

Teddy boy, 1980

 

Mod boy, 1981

 

Phil Polecat and friends, 1980

 

Fan plays air guitar in mud at Loch Lomond Festival, 1981

 

Slim at Specials concert, 1980

 

Debbie Harry, 1981

 

Julien Temple, 1982

 

Skinhead and mod fans at Loch Lomond Festival, 1981

 

Ska fans at Loch Lomond Festival, 1981

 

Record shoppers, 1981

 

Ladbroke Grove sound system, 1979

 

Punks, 1980

 

New Romantics, 1980

 

Rude boys, 1981

 

Fans at The Jam's farewell concert, 1982

 

Andy's Cut and Blow Dry, London, 1980

 

The Beat, 1980