21 Amazing Black and White Photographs That Capture New York’s 1970s Punk Rock Scene at CBGB

David Godlis, a photographer simply known as GODLIS, was deeply influenced by Brassai’s Secret Paris of the 1930s – which portrayed its opium dens, its brothels – when he decided to photograph music history in 1976.

“I looked at [Brassai’s book] every morning over coffee at Burger King in Times Square before going to work at a photo studio nearby,” Godlis writes in the introduction of his latest photobook, History is Made At Night. “But sitting at the CBGB bar that night, I suddenly had the epiphany that may be I could be shooting at CBGB like Brassai shot Paris.”

These amazing black-and-white photographs from the time he spent in and around the famed CBGB club on the Bowery, offering a rare look into the early punk rock scene that transpired in New York’s East Village.

Ramones, CBGB, 1977.

Bowery Halloween, 1978.

Blondie, PUNK Magazine Benefit, CBGB, 1977.

Patti Smith, Bowery, 1976.

Dead Boys, CBGB, 1977.

No Wave Punks, Bowery 1978. l. to r. Harold Paris, Kristian Hoffman, DIego Cortez, Anya Phillips, Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Jim Sclavunos, Bradly Field, and Liz Seidman.

Talking Heads, CBGB, 1977.

Klaus Nomi, Christopher Parker, and Jim Jarmusch, Bowery, 1978.

CBGB bathroom, 1977.

CBGB bathroom, 1977.

Hilly Kristal, Bowery, 1977.

Richard Hell and Bob Quine, CBGB, 1978.

Arturo Vega, CBGB entrance, 1977.

Stiv Bators and Divine, Blitz Benefit, CBGB, 1978.

Alex Chilton, Bowery, 1977.

Bowery view, summer, 1977.

Cramps, Bowery, 1977.

Lydia Lunch, Delancey Street loft, 1977.

Ramones, CBGB, 1977.

CBGB interior at closing time, 4am, 1977.

Handsome Dick Manitoba and Jody, Bowery, 1976.

(Photos © David Godlis)