ContestsEvents

LISTEN LIVE

Jay Schwartz Reveals Photos from Early Days of Punk Rock in South Philly

Rhawnhurst native Jay Schwartz witnessed punk rock before it became mainstream. Now, he’s revealing some stunning photos from his photographic work at the SPACE Art Gallery at 749 S. 8th…

14th May 1977: A punk ‘spazzing’ at the Rainbow Theatre in London while The Clash and The Jam play in concert. (Photo by Chris Moorhouse/Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Rhawnhurst native Jay Schwartz witnessed punk rock before it became mainstream. Now, he's revealing some stunning photos from his photographic work at the SPACE Art Gallery at 749 S. 8th St. in South Philly from now through May 31.

More than 60 of his images are on exhibit and available for purchase at the gallery, where he hosted an open reception for his work on Saturday, May 3.

Walking through the gallery, one encounters black-and-white imagery of musicians who performed at Philadelphia's local venues. These performers included Deborah Harry of Blondie, the Talking Heads, Devo and the B-52s, and others. 

Schwartz captured several of the photos at large venues such as the Tower Theater. Others were shot amid the smokey confines of the Hot Club at the corner of 21st and South Street, where Schwartz had worked as the club's publicist for a time. His photos are candid, unfiltered looks at the lives of punk rockers before they made it big.

“It's exciting,” Schwartz said in an interview with the Northeast Times. “A lot of the pictures I never saw enlarged before. I just saw them on contact sheets. All these pictures were taken with the idea that they were going to be printed in a magazine somewhere. Most of them never were.”

Schwartz added that attending the shows as a youngster was akin to joining a secret club. “If you were at these shows, you were in on something pretty early,” he said. “Probably 100 or 200 people in the Delaware Valley came to these shows.”

 In all, Schwartz managed to capture more than 75 influential bands. He admits that the uniqueness of his work lies in his ability to have gotten such intimate photos of the performers.

“A lot of the press at the time was shooting pictures of crazy-looking punk rock fans, and even though I didn't look like that, I considered myself part of that world and I didn't want to treat that as a freak show," he said in comments to the Northeast Times. “I was into the music, so I mostly showed musicians.”