Janette Beckman has a body of work that will make your mouth water. Growing up in London during the birth of punk – when youth culture mags like The Face and music rags like Melody Maker packaged teen spirit into Barbara Kruger-inspired spreads by the bucketful – the art school debutante shot a lion’s share of talent; from Sex Pistols and The Clash to Blondie and Boy George.
Often turning her camera on the fans as much as the frontmen and women, Janette sought out off-the-wall characters from underground communities and captured them in classical portraits that recalled paintings and sculptures of the past.
When hip hop came along in the early 1980s she rode the renaissance to New York and seamlessly became its visual guardian shooting everyone from Run DMC and Public Enemy to LL Cool J and Eric B. & Rakim.