2013Exhibitions

Ruby Ray, From the Edge of the World: California Punk 1977-81

June 2013

Born in New York, Ruby Ray migrated to San Francisco in the mid-’70s. She entered the underground scene while working at Tower Records in North Beach. When she acquired her first camera, she quickly turned it into a weapon. Ray shot using a Nikon FM and Tri-X 400 film, the fastest film of its time. While documenting new bands and people for Search & Destroy magazine, she wielded her lens like many young DIY artists were brandishing guitars – bold, carefree and absolutely necessary.

As a fixture on the first wave punk scene, Ray photographed with a stark intimacy. There are candid shots of The Sex Pistols’ fateful trip to San Francisco, Darby Crash slashed and bloodied, Exene Cervenka sitting amongst discarded tires like tombstones, and The Avengers’ Penelope Houston writhing on stage.

For a brief period, Los Angeles and San Francisco hosted vibrant subcultures that threw up sounds, noises, ideas and images that remain some of the 20th century’s most vivid youth statements. You can hear how in the few records that were made at the time… These pictures are a record of a lost moment that is finally receiving the attention that it was always due.

Jon Savage

All photographs are 19 x 13 in. pigment prints on archival fiber paper, each an edition of 21 print, signed and numbered. Each print is $450.00