Thursday, September 16, 2021

"It was a different world"

While the UK punk scene had Denis O'Regan and Chalkie Davies as its photographic chroniclers, the US - or at least Boston, the country's original "punk city" - had Michael Grecco. The Guardian's Rob Walker spoke to him shortly before his four-day immersive Days Of Punk exhibition at Somerset House, as part of Photo London 2021.

Like O'Regan, Grecco rather stumbled upon punk as an amateur photographer, revelling in "its rawness, its authenticity" and the fact that it allowed him to get up close and personal to the bands. Like O'Regan, Grecco found it opened doors for a career in the company of some of the biggest stars in music - in his case, Johnny Cash, Kanye West and Michael Jackson. And like O'Regan, Grecco retains fond memories of where it all started, and the punk scene's chaotic vitality: "They were the best of times."

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