Icon Photographer Ebet Roberts

After graduating from the Memphis College of Art, Ebet Roberts left her native Memphis to pursue a fine-art career in New York City. In 1977, she abandoned painting in favor of photography and began to document the evolving scene at CBGB and other legendary venues. She was a witness to the punk explosion of the late ’70s, which led to professional relationships with such genre icons as Iggy Pop, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols.

Since then Ebet has consistently documented musicians, capturing the essence of the artists she photographs, while accumulating a vast archive and respect from her peers. Her photographs look beyond the hype to document revealing moments onstage, backstage, offstage, and in the portrait studio.

Ebet’s photography has been reproduced on album and book covers, and has appeared in numerous film and television specials. Her work is also in the permanent collection of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Seattle’s Experience Music Project, the Grammy Museum, and the Hard Rock Cafe, along with galleries, museums, and private collections worldwide.