"In 1979, a soon-to-erupt punk scene took hold in Washington, DC, with
bands like the Bad Brains, Trenchmouth, Teen Idles, the Untouchables,
and the Slickee Boys, among others, at the forefront. Lucian Perkins,
later a Pulitzer Prize -winning photojournalist for the Washington Post,
was then an intern who photographed several pivotal shows over a short
period of time. His now iconic photos of these shows are complemented by
punk rock musician Alec MacKaye’s narrative that runs throughout the
book and an essay by Henry Rollins.
Hard Art, DC 1979 is both a book and a traveling
exhibition of photographs by Lucian Perkins. The exhibition is curated
and edited by photographer and photo editor Lely Constantinople and
Jayme McLellan, director of Civilian Art Projects, Washington, DC, with
photographs being shown as a group for the first time.