30 years ago I went to my first punk show in the DC area. It was Naked Raygun, TSOL, MIA, Government Issue and the Cereal Killers at WUST Hall. Back then I didn’t have a camera nor the balls to photograph the bands, punks and skinheads at these shows, but I remembered the energy, the fun and the danger that swirled like a tornado at these events. For the last four years, I’ve been shooting the current hardcore and punk scene in DC and Baltimore which has been making waves in our area and beyond
After a while, I realized that all the contract negotiations, bidding, license management, etc., was sucking all the fun out of it. I decided at that point I wanted to keep photography a hobby, an art, and do my own thing with the medium
STRATA is a photography collective based out of Washington D.C. and San Francisco, CA. Bill Bramble (B), Matt Dunn (M), Steve Goldenberg (S), Michael Hicks (H), Chris Suspect (C) and Aziz Yazdani (A). They brought their talents together in an effort to take pictures that leave the viewer asking questions. Goals of their work include wanting to improve the street photography genre and pooling their resources to reach a wider audience.