The world’s first punk record label, Ork Records, emerged in 1975 as the brainchild of Terry Ork, a SoCal cinephile who, after meeting Warhol’s clique shooting a surf film, relocated to NYC in 1968 for its underground post-disco scene and The Factory. Ork led the success of the club CBGB, and his fledgling Ork Records went on to release raucous debuts by Television and Richard Hell, as well as legendary recordings from Lester Bangs, The Feelies, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Brian Eno, Blondie and The Ramones. Ork Records underlies punk mythology as a leading story of an underdog in a world of hustlers. It is riddled with heartbreak, financial straits and raw ambition. A musical narrative, Ork Records: New York, New York is a box compilation curated and released by Numero Group, giving voice to the forgotten genesis of punk and the birth of the New York indie scene ever after.

via Numero Group

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In the 1970s and ’80s East Village punk art scene, Jimmy DeSana was among those bringing photography into conversation with his compelling and at times explicit work. In addition to his staged photos, DeSana photographed stars of downtown New York’s art and music scene, including Debbie Harry, David Byrne and Laurie Anderson. DeSana’s art graced the cover of the Talking Heads album More Songs about Buildings and Food and attracted the attention of William S. Burroughs, who penned the introduction to his Submission collection.

Jimmy DeSana: Suburban is the first print collection from his series of the same name, made throughout the late ’70s and into the ’80s. His nudes were intertwined with various everyday objects and lit with gel-covered Tungsten lights, suggesting both physical comedy and sadomasochism. “I don’t really think of [Suburban] as erotic,” DeSana said, “I think of the body as an object. I attempted to use the body but without the eroticism some photographers use frequently. I think I de-eroticized a lot of it… but that is the way the suburbs are, in a sense.” DeSana: Suburban is edited by Dan Nadel and Laurie Simmons, DeSana’s longtime roommate and friend, and offers access to an early, crucial body of DeSana’s work.

via Aperture/Salon 94

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In 1983, legendary photographer Mary Ellen Mark first photographed Erin “Tiny” Charles, a homeless 13-year-old sex worker with dreams of a horse farm, diamonds, furs and children. Tiny was just one of Mark’s eight subjects for “Streets of the Lost,” a photo series in Life magazine documenting Seattle’s homeless and troubled youth working as pimps, prostitutes, panhandlers and small-time drug dealers.

In 1984, Tiny became the main subject of Streetwise, a film directed by Mark’s husband Martin Bell. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1985, propelling Tiny’s story into a sort of documentary cult status. In tandem with her husband’s film, Mary Ellen Mark released the accompanying photo book Streetwise. In the thirty years since, Mark has sustained her relationship with Tiny, continuing to photograph and at times interview her. Tiny, Streetwise Revisited now reveals these intimate portraits of Erin “Tiny” (née Charles) Blackwell and her 10 children along with conversations between Tiny, Mary Ellen Mark and Martin Bell. The photos speak to consistent issues of poverty, class, race and addiction against the evolving backdrop of time.

via Aperture

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California-based trio Fuzz—fronted by prolific musician Ty Segall—return with II, the awaited sequel to their eponymous 2013 debut. Segall, with longtime collaborator Charles Moothart on guitar and Roland Cosio on bass, explores the prog, proto-metal and hard-rock influences known to inform his idiosyncratic sound. II is what you get when three supremely talented musicians geek out on the stuff looping through their headphones back in high school: Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. The result is distortion-drenched and well-honed, full of indulgent noodling and virtuoso jams, managing to be both hard rock nostalgic and gratifyingly fresh.

via In The Red

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