Roberta Bayley is a photographer, best known for her photographs of the New York punk scene of the 70s.

Life

Bayley was born in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

and grew up in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. She attended

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

for three years before dropping out in 1971. She moved to London where she lived for three years. In 1973 she briefly worked for Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in their store Let It Rock. In that same year she met singer and songwriter Ian Dury whose band Kilburn and the Highroads were playing at a pub in Whitechapel. A romance ensued, until Bayley moved to New York in the spring of 1974. In July of 1974 Bayley met musician and poet

Richard Hell Richard Lester Meyers (born October 2, 1949), better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. Hell was in several important early punk rock bands, including Neon Boys, Television (band), ...

, and months later began working the door at

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...

s at the request of Terry Ork, the manager of Hell's band

Television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. After splitting with Hell in early 1975, CBGB owner Hilly Kristal asked if she could continue working the door, which she did until 1978 when she went to work for Blondie in the office of Peter Leeds, the manager of the band at the time. While Bayley had taken a few photography classes in high school in the 60s, it wasn't until November 1975 that she bought a camera to document what she saw going on in New York's downtown music scene. In 1976, she went to work for John Holmstrom and Legs McNeil at

Punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

magazine. She photographed the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of th ...

for the third issue in February 1976. Her image from that session became the cover of the band's first album. Apparently the record label had initially hired a different photographer, but the band rejected those photos and instead selected Bayley's image. Bayley served as chief photographer for Punk Magazine from the second issue until its demise. In addition to her images of the Ramones, Bayley is known for her pictures of

Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble, July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie (band), Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1 ...

of Blondie, Richard Hell,

Johnny Thunders John Anthony Genzale (July 15, 1952 – April 23, 1991), known professionally as Johnny Thunders, was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He came to prominence in the early 1970s as a member of New York Dolls. He later formed the He ...

of the Heartbreakers,

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...

The Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they became culturally influential in popular music. The band initiated the punk movement in the United Ki ...

The Clash The Clash were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements ...

, The Damned,

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in Pub rock (United Kingdom), pub rock, power pop and New wave music, new wave,Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

X-Ray Spex X-Ray Spex were an English punk rock band formed in 1976 in London. During their first incarnation (1976–1979), X-Ray Spex released five singles and one album. Their 1977 single " Oh Bondage Up Yours!" and 1978 debut album '' Germfree Adol ...

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

, and many, many others. Bayley still lives in New York's East Village. In addition to several monographs of her work, her photographs have been published in seminal histories of punk, including ''Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk'' (1997) and ''Blank Generation Revisited: The Early Days of Punk''. She was co-author on ''The Unauthorized Biography of Patti Smith'' (1996, Simon & Schuster) and her Blondie book ''Blondie Unseen'' (2006, Plexus) is still available.

References

External links

* https://www.robertabayley.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Bayley, Roberta San Francisco State University alumni American women photographers Artists from Pasadena, California Photographers from New York City Photographers from California People from the East Village, Manhattan Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women Women in punk