Ruby Ray (born 1952) is a photographer, particularly known for her photography of the early

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

movement. She is known for her photography of marginalized and fringe musical artists, with her photographs featured in ''Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, The Early Years.''

Career

Ruby Ray grew up in upstate New York before moving to San Francisco. She began her photography career in 1977 with ''Search and Destroy'', a local San Francisco

zine A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...

. Her first photo session was with

The Dils The Dils were an American punk rock band formed 1976 and active until 1980, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by the brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman. They appeared as the second act in the "battle of the bands" sequence in ...

. By 1979, ''Search and Destroy'' has ceased publishing, but Ruby Ray continued photographing local punk bands and eventually began her own publication, ''RE/Search''. As the punk scene dwindled, Ruby Ray moved to New York City in the 1980s.

Exhibits

* ''Punk Passage San Francisco First Wave Punk 1977–1981.'' San Francisco Public Library. 12 September – 6 December 2009.

References

Publications

Ray, Ruby and Savage, Jon. ''From the Edge of the World: California Punk, 1977–1981''. San Francisco, Calif. : Superior Viaduct, 2013. Ruby Ray: Kalifornia Kool Photographs 1976–1982 https://www.artbook.com/9789198451238.html 1952 births Living people 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers {{US-photographer-stub Women in punk