| | | | TRAPART BOOKSRuby Ray: Kalifornia KoolPhotographs 1976-1982Introduction by Carl Abrahamsson.
 Punk and industrial culture in late '70s and early '80s San FranciscoSpanning music, art and literature, the industrial and punk scenes of San Francisco in the late 1970s and early 1980s were diverse but united by a DIY, anti-authoritarian attitude. Photographer Ruby Ray was there to capture it all in the same spirit. With her work appearing in the legendary punk zine Search & Destroy and its successor RE/Search, Ray was at the epicenter of, and a key participant in, a vital cultural moment vibrant with provocation and creativity. A local experimental music and art scene supported artists like Bruce Conner, William S. Burroughs and Louise Nevelson and attracted groundbreaking bands like Devo, the Mutants, Boyd Rice and the Dead Kennedys, as well as established international bands like Throbbing Gristle, the Clash and the Sex Pistols (in fact, Ray was there to shoot their famous final concert at the Winterland Ballroom).
Ruby Ray: Kalifornia Kool collects the photographer’s images from this time: live shots, backstage parties, apartments overflowing with youthful exuberance, elegant portraits of key people and photographic experiments. Her work captures a time and a place where West Coast open-mindedness, youth, art, music and electricity merged. As Carl Abrahamsson puts it in his introduction to this volume, “Ruby’s images open up a portal to a mythic and frenzied scene and show that it’s true: all mythologies are real.”
Ruby Ray (born 1952) is an American photographer, well known for her photography of the early punk, post-punk and industrial movements in California in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She began her photography career in 1977, when her photographs began appearing in Search & Destroy.
Featured photograph is of artist and filmmaker Bruce Conner with his wife, the artist Jean Conner, under a cobweb in their yard, 1979.PRAISE AND REVIEWSCreative Boom Katy Cowan Ruby Ray: Kalifornia Kool is a new book that collects the photographer’s images from this time: live shots, backstage parties, apartments overflowing with youthful exuberance, elegant portraits of key people and photographic experiments. Her work captures a time and a place where West Coast open-mindedness, youth, art, music and electricity merged. Huck Miss Rosen Spanning the late ’70s and early ’80s, Ruby Ray’s photography captured the DIY misfits of music, art and literature. Bookforum Alex Jovanovich [Kalifornia Kool] is a glamorous yet melancholy jaunt down memory lane. Interview Sarah Nechamkin It’s a time capsule into an era when fun could be weaponized against an establishment that was giving out poison Kool-Aid and instituting “no dancing” rules in clubs. Mother Jones Mark Murrmann Ruby Ray’s new book, “Kalifornia Kool,” reminds us what made the early scene so special. CNN Ryan Prior [Ray's] book is a living record of the ‘70s punk scene, which almost by its very definition, was ephemeral. Guardian Photographer Ruby Ray found herself at the epicentre of a movement in late-70s San Francisco and started to capture the bands, artists and writers who defined it. In a new book, Ruby Ray: Kalifornia Kool, her greatest shots have been assembled, opening up ‘a portal to a mythic and frenzied scene.' |
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| | FROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/28/2019 "Late 70s, early 80s… Ruby Ray and her camera, capturing the movers and the shakers of the San Francisco punk and industrial scenes… And then some… Performance art, music, literature, photos, videos made with a 'fuck you' and 'do it yourself' attitude." So begins Carl Abrahamsson's introduction to Ruby Ray: Kalifornia Kool, launching tonight at City Lights Books in San Francisco. "Ruby sees and Ruby captures," Abrahamsson continues. "Knowns and unknowns, winners and losers, sane and insane, constructive and destructive… William Burroughs with his gun, Bruce Conner being fueled by punk energy, Sex Pistols' last ever gig in San Fran, Throbbing Gristle, The Cramps live at Napa Mental Hospital, Search and Destroy Magazine and bands and gigs galore…" Featured image is captioned, "Exene at Tire Beach, 1978. Exene Cervenka, poet and singer of LA band X, finds repose at the tire dump on the shores of the San Francisco Bay." continue to blog | FORTHCOMING AND RECENT PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS |  | FRAENKEL GALLERYISBN: 9781881337232
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