Janette Beckman

Riding the first revolutionary waves of UK punk and US hip-hop, Beckman made a timely move from her native London to downtown NY in the early 1980s. With her trademark panache already established at the start of what would be a formidable career, Beckman was thus able to capture the exhilarating births of two movements that went on to change popular culture internationally – punk and hip-hop. She was baptized into professional photography by a total punk immersion. Her first professional gig, in 1978, was a commission to shoot Siouxsie and the Banshees – that same night. (OK, might as well make the disclosure: she was commissioned by myself as Features Editor of SOUNDS rock weekly.)

 Her rebel spirit is now employed for commercial campaigns by the likes of Dior; but these eternal images, and Beckman’s own reminiscences, take us back to where it all began, far from glamorous catwalks, in squats and housing projects.

“I like to make the subject feel good so they can give you that moment,” Beckman says -- and never are these artists more like your pals than in these pics.

 Vivien Goldman

 All images copyright Janette Beckman

This was shot for the Melody Maker British rock weekly. At the time I just thought, these women are so punk, rehearsing in the toilet of their West London squat. There they were, all dressed up in their fabulous punky tartan skirts. Their bass-player, Gina Birch looks like she has got wrestling sneakers on and they are really going at it. I thought it was the ultimate punk girly thing and I loved it so much. They were very avant-garde post- punk, really. It was shot in a dark bathroom and I may have used a flash… but it worked out really well. Gina’s daughter Honey plays guitar and writes poetry and is carrying on the legacy.

I photographed Salt-N-Pepa before they had an album out. We had spent the day hanging out together in Alphabet City on Avenues C and D. they seemed like best friends, laughing, dancing in front of a mural and drinking sodas outside the local deli. We got on really well and they asked me to photograph their first album, that is how I got connected.. A couple of years later I photographed them for the cover of 'Push It' they arrived at my studio wearing amazing jackets custom made by the one and only Dapper Dan, African kente cloth hats, gold chains hoop earrings and spandex leggings.

Any time I talk with people about women rappers, this comes up, because it is all-girl power. I love Salt-N-Pepa, their songs are all about female power and it shows. Till then, it was all guy rappers talking about girls round the way. Then come these girls answering with,

‘Let’s talk about sex ,’ and they changed the whole game.. in this pretty male-dominated world, you’ve got to give it to Salt-N-Pepa.

The was a very early shot I took in 1984 in Hollis, Queens. It was a commission from the Face magazine who wanted a story on the new, burgeoning rap scene coming out of Brooklyn.  The Face had given me a phone number which turned out for be Jam Master Jay’s mum’s house and he said he would meet me by the Hollis subway station in Queens.

 I never had an assistant. I would jump on the train with my Hasselblad camera, my most precious possession, and some film. Jay walked me to the nice tree-lined street they lived on, where there was a bunch of friends hanging out together by a car in the dappled sunlight.

 I had my camera loaded and ready to go and as I took this shot it was almost like a physical feeling. I knew it was gonna be a great shot.

 Maybe I took 4 rolls of 120 film, and I got this one in the first 12 shots. I love this image so much and it is one of my bestselling photos in the Gallery. It  captures a moment in time.  They are wearing classic clothes, Kangols, Gazelle sunglasses and Adidas. At shows, people stand in front and say, “I had those sneakers, I had that Kangol bucket hat!” Something about the shot captures people’s imaginations

This came out around the time Public Enemy were really political with “Fear of a Black Planet.” It was also around the time of the Spike Lee film, “Do the Right Thing.” There was a lot of racial tension in New York. Chuck D and Terminator X were just so great, Flavor Flav was joking around, being funny with a little stop watch he wore around his neck – later he wore oversize ones, but this was his first clock. Chuck was super thoughtful, talking politics, and I was very impressed by him as a person and by what they were trying to do. Their song “Rebel Without a Pause” was blasting out everywhere that hot summer. What they did seemed to capture that particular moment for me. The artist Shepard Fairey recently did a collaboration with me using that picture. We did a signing together and I was able to say hello to Chuck again, which was great.

I shot this for a cover story in Melody Maker(a long-running UK music weekly), about Paul Weller from The Jam meeting his hero Pete Townshend from the Who for the first time The story was written by my friend Paolo Hewitt who had grown up with Paul Weller,  the cover title was ‘The Punk and the Modfather.’

 We had arranged to meet outside the Marquee Club, Paul and Pete had just arrived and were standing on the sidewalk together. I introduced myself and asked them to pose for the photo just as they were.

 This was a moment in time that I was lucky enough to capture. The meeting of the old and new school Mods, standing outside the Marquee Club in London’s Soho -- which had been an original watering-hole for both 60s mods and 70s punks -- and in the background, you can see a ‘Son of Stiff’ tour poster, the early punk-rock indie label who also released brilliant musicians like Ian Dury and The Blockheads.

“Weller looked so sharp in his suit, with a cigarette in one hand, his legs crossed; so perfectly mod and of his time. Townsend is more disheveled. He doesn’t give a fuck because he is Pete Townsend of The Who. They look very natural. I just had to make sure the light was good..

I shot this for Interview magazine in 2018. Brockhampton are hip-hop but they are also kind of pop. Some of them are out gay. Brockhampton are just a huge mix of all sorts of people.  They are a collective, who all live and work together. Very punk. They arrived at my studio which is kind of small, there were 12 people from the band, their manager, the press guy, the stylist from Interview with his assistants, hair and make-up people, the studio was full. The Interview stylist wanted them to try on Hilfiger clothes, but the band wouldn’t. They almost walked out but I told them to wear their own orange jump suits and we walked around the corner on a freezing cold day to a wall I had scouted earlier and got this shot.

I loved the orange jumpsuits and how they wore them -- some had them on turned halfway down and others tied them round their waists.   The wall referenced the lettering on the orange jumpsuits. I have spent much of my life looking for a good wall.

One day in London I walked into the office of Sounds weekly music magazine to show my portfolio. The picture editor was out but the features editor Vivien Goldman said she would look at my work. After looking at my photos she said “Do you want to photograph Spizz Oil and Siouxsie and the Banshees at the Roundhouse tonight” I immediately said yes - I had never photographed a band before. At the concert I figured out somehow how to deal with the lighting and action onstage

That night I developed and printed the photos and dropped them off at Sounds in the morning. They gave me another assignment The rest is history. Vivien and I went on to cover stories from Earth Wind & Fire to PIL together.