The Police, London 1978
HM Gang, East LA 1983
Run DMC, Hollis Queens 1984
Janette Beckman
Rebel Cultures:
Punks, Rap and Gangs
Opening Thursday, April 17th, 2014, 7 – 10pm
Please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com
In the summer of 1982, Janette Beckman was introduced to members of the East LA gang El Hoyo Maravilla. She proceeded to document this culture much as she had with British punks and the emerging New York hip-hop scene. HVW8 presents her photographs of these seemingly disparate tribes bound by a common rebel spirit.
Janette Beckman vividly remembers that summer. “I was spending the summer in LA with a friend who managed a punk band…for me that meant going out to clubs at night to take photos, neon signs, palm trees, 1950′s bars and cars, Venice beach and much more.
One day I met a writer who was working on a story about the East LA gang scene. I asked him to introduce me to the El Hoyo Maravilla gang. We drove out one hot summer day to a large dusty park in East LA to meet some members of the HM gang.
I had been documenting the London punk scene since 1976 and brought with me a box of 8”X10” prints of the British skinheads, punks, ska and rockabilly kids to show them. I explained that these were the ‘gangs’ in the UK and they agreed to let me take portraits of them to show people in London. I spent that summer photographing the gang with my Hasselblad camera, driving back and forth from Hollywood to East LA in my Rent-A-Wreck V8 Ford LTD.
The East LA area was poor, hot and arid, and there was the constant sound of LAPD helicopters buzzing overhead. The gang members introduced me to their families, showed me the barrio and tried to explain how it was living ‘la vida loca’.
I was the first British person they had ever met and we were curious about each other.”
In 2011, Dashwood Books published a collection of Janette’s photos of the HM gang. One of the three girls Janette had photographed leaning against a car in the park contacted her after seeing the book.
Nearly 30 years after that original photo was taken, Janette met the girls again to see where their lives had taken them. “We met in Boyle Heights at their sister Arlene’s house and they took me to the Home Girl Café for lunch. The three women had amazing tales to tell of their lives. They had lost husbands to gang violence. But these three amazing women had survived and thrived, they were mothers, career women and still the best of friends. They told me that most of the Hoyo Maravilla guys that I had photographed back in the day were either in jail or had passed away. We sat in the cafe and told stories. They tried to date the exact year I had met them: ‘Was the car we were standing in front of gold or blue?’ they asked, because one of their friends had been shot in the car and it had to be repainted after that because of the blood stains – this was how they would date the photos.”
This exhibition features not only photographs of the HM gang back in the day and the Rivera Bad Girls today, but also various iconic photographs documenting the formative years of the punk and hip-hop scenes including Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer, Debbie Harry, Slick Rick, Keith Haring, and Run DMC to name a few.
‘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 The Specials as well as 3 Police album covers. Her powerful portraits celebrating this music and street style are collected in ‘Made in the UK: The Music of Attitude, 1977-1982‘, PowerHouse Books 2005.
Moving to New York in 1982, she was drawn to the underground Hip Hop scene. Her photographs of pioneers Afrika Bambaata, Run DMC, Salt’ n ‘Pepa and Grandmaster Flash and 1980′s style are collected in ‘The Breaks, Stylin and Profilin 1982-1990‘, PowerHouse Books 2007.
Since moving to New York she has shot everyone from entertainers to politicians – Clients include: Esquire, Rolling Stone, People, Interview, London Sunday Times Magazine, Observer Magazine, Doc Marten, Converse, Schott, Casio, Warner Brothers Music, Universal Music, etc.
Her photographs have recently been exhibited at: Paul Smith London, Morrison Hotel Gallery NYC, Collette Paris, Isetan Tokyo, Kong Gallery Shanghai, Rockarchive and Proud Gallery London.