RAY, Ruby
Kalifornia Kool. Photographs 1976-1982

THE family album of the American West Cost early punk, post-punk and industrial scene. Commented by the author and introduced by Search & Destroy and RE/Search founder, collaborator and close friend V. Vale ("How Punk Started in San Francisco") and Trapart books editor Carl Abrahamsson.

“Late 70s, early 80s... Ruby Ray and her camera, capturing the movers and shakers of the San Francisco punk and industrial scenes... And then some... Performance art, music, literature, photos, videos made with a “fuck you” and “do it yourself” attitude. Ruby sees and Ruby captures... Knowns and unknowns, winners and losers, sane and insane, constructive and destructive... William Burroughs with his gun, Bruce Conner being fueled by punk energy, Sex Pistols’ last ever gig in San Fran, Throbbing Gristle, The Cramps live at Napa Mental Hospital, Search and Destroy Magazine, and bands and gigs galore... Devo, Mutants, Slits, Bags, Dead Kennedys, Cabaret Voltaire, Roky Erickson, Nico, DOA, Chrome, Factrix, Boyd Rice, Z’EV, Flipper... You name’em and there was Ruby Ray: the spectacularly talented lens of Kalifornia Kool. We should be grateful for her work. It’s invaluable, evocative, loud, sexy and more inspiring now than ever before... Ruby’s images open up a portal to a mythic and frenzied scene and show that it’s true: all mythologies are real... Turn up the volume and dive into this one.”
– Carl Abrahamsson, from the Introduction

Published by Trapart Books, 2019
Music & Sound / Photography