Open Studio: Janette Beckman

Join photographer Janette Beckman and step into her studio, at 57 Great Jones, for a potrait through her lens.

All are welcome.

About the Artist:

British-born photographer Janette Beckman began her career in the punk rock era working for music magazines The Face and Melody Maker. She shot bands and the fans from The Clash, to Boy George as well as three Police album covers.

In 1983 she moved to New York to document the underground hip-hop scene working for magazines and the new hip-hop record labels, photographing pioneers Run DMC, Slick Rick, Salt-N-Pepa, LL Cool J, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shanté, Ice Cube, NWA, and many more.

She has published five books, including ‘Rap Portraits & Lyrics of a Generation of Black Rockers’(1991). “Made in the UK’ (2005), ‘The Breaks Stylin’ & Profilin” (2008) and ‘The MashUp’ (2018) a collaboration with iconic New York graffiti artists reinterpreting her hip hop images. Her monograph covering 40 years of photography “Rebels From Punk To Dior’ was published by Drago in November 2021.

Her work has been shown in galleries worldwide and is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of the City of New York and the British National Portrait Gallery.

Janette’s retrospective exhibition ‘Rebels & Icons’, forty years of visual storytelling across music, street culture, fashion, and activism, opens at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle in May 2026. 

Janette continues to chronicle sub-cultures as well as photographing campaigns for brands like Dior and Levis . She is represented by the Fahey Klein Gallery.