Photographer's Research - Janette Beckman

Janette Beckman is a British photographer who is currently based in New York, working for British style magazine 'Jocks&Nerds'. Beginning her career in the 70s, Beckman photographed the punk scene in England and New York. Not only this, but Beckman has also worked with many musicians such as The Clash and Boy George and has released four books featuring many of her works. One of her books is titled "Made in the UK: The Music of Attitude 1977 - 1983" and features images of the Mods and Rockers - the two groups who dominated youth culture during that time period. To this day Beckman still focuses on capturing the lives of youth in different cultures and is considered to be a "respected veteran photographer of music and youth culture". 

This image was part of her US youth exploration. It features four girls all huddled together as they laugh and pose for the picture. This helps give us an idea of how young girls in the US dressed at the time that this photograph was taken (1980s). By taking a portraiture of these four girls, she has captured their youth in an image and therefore given an insight into that generations lifestyle for people to see in the future.

This was taken at a concert in 1980 and shows a crowd of 'Skins' gathered at the barrier. This shows us how important and influential subcultures were within youth at this time as we can see how all of the people in this image are dressed similarly, and how this crowd goes quite far back so lots of people have travelled out for this concert. 

The man in this photograph is holding on to two chains around his neck - probably to show them off to the camera. Again, this image was taken in America and shows a youth culture specific to this country. As the man is showing off his chains, it could be suggested that these are desirable objects within his generation or subculture as he is perhaps trying to make people jealous when he is showing them off.

In this image of a group of UK Punks, we can clearly see their unique style and aesthetics which make them stand out from others. Whilst nothing explicitly rebellious is happening, the overall look of this group of young people would make you assume that they are bad and antisocial. For example, the leather jackets and big, spiky hair are often associated with looking like a rebel and being defiant of societies norms.