For more than four decades, Alison Braun has captured the underground punk, hardcore and metal music scene. At fifteen, she began photographing punk shows at Los Angeles’ Whisky a Go Go in 1981. Soon a fixture at legendary venues including the Whisky, the Starwood, and the Roxy, her photographs and interviews appeared in influential fanzines such as Maximum Rock’n’roll, Flipside, and We Got Power, with additional work for Mystic Records and Metal Blade Records.

Her extensive archive includes defining images of Bad Brains, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Social Distortion, Metallica, Megadeth, Motörhead, Suicidal Tendencies, and D.R.I. After relocating to Seattle, she expanded into portrait and editorial photography while documenting the Pacific Northwest music scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in Getty Images’ archival collections.

Today, Braun continues to photograph live music and serves as co-founder, staff photographer, and archivist of the Punk Rock Museum, preserving the visual history of underground music culture. (Image © Randy Blythe)