PANIC! | Photo 02

Hermosa Beach, CA, 1976 – It was the beginning of the Punk movement and a small group of South Bay rejects formed a band. Influenced by Iggy and the Stooges and The Ramones, they called themselves PANIC! They practiced for hours and hours every day in a tiny rehearsal space that doubled as the guitarist's DIY electronics workshop. In 1978, LA underground music scenester Greg Shaw of Bomp! Records signed them up to release a 7” record. Shaw dragged his feet on the release, frustrating guitarist Greg Ginn to the point he decided to start his own record label and release it himself. As it turned out there was already a band called PANIC!, so at Ginn’s brother Raymond Pettibon's suggestion, they took the name BLACK FLAG and released their first record, NERVOUS BREAKDOWN on the newly formed SST Records, and thus a legacy was born and independent music would never be the same again.

Flashforward to 2004 with Shaw’s passing and his estate being sold off, a young fan turned punk historian from Austin, Texas named Ryan Richardson discovers a 9x12" manila envelope with a return address from "SST Electronics" in Shaw’s filing cabinet. It contained two rolls of processed black and white negatives, eight 8x10" black and white prints, and the original contracts and correspondence made between Bomp! and PANIC!

In 2018, forty-two years after PANIC!’s formation, Richardson decided to release these never-before-seen or published pictures in a book simply titled PANIC!, where he reproduced everything contained in the envelope he had found. Every picture from each roll of film, the eight prints, the Bomp contracts (with misspellings), and the letters on SST letterhead. The photographer was never named in the letters. Richardson spent a considerable about of time attempting to track down the shutterbug who made the images of the young miscreants. He spoke with band members and SST employees, but no one could remember who it was – and since the book came out, no one has come forward to claim the mantel of the first person to ever photograph Black Flag, and so the mystery remains.

Enter Bill Daniel – In 2020, Richardson asked legendary photographer and darkroom wizard Bill Daniel to make a series of prints of two of the images from the book/manilla envelope. Daniel chose two of his favorites and made an edition of 25 of each in the darkroom on archival 11x14" silver gelatin paper. These prints have never been displayed or offered for sale – until now. Ryan has given THESE DAYS the opportunity to offer these very special prints for sale to the public. 

AVAILABLE NOW – a piece of hardcore history, in the form of a limited edition print of some of the first photographs ever made of this band of outsiders, who went on to shape the American DIY punk ethos as we know it.