Scarpati, whose images span four waves of modern music and have become some of the most enduring iconics of metal, rock and punk, was raised in New Jersey, came of age in San Diego, gained notoriety in Los Angeles, now calls the world his home and Nashville his return address.
“Think of me as an innocent bystander, there was no master plan. No carefully tended career path. I loved rock and punk music. I saw things. Puzzles intrigued me. Bugs and lizards and creepy crawly things fascinated me. Influences possessed me. There had to be a way to put it all together… and those girls in the clubs who were all presence, black leather and kohl eyeliner…”
Cramp, Slash & Burn: When Punk and Glam were Twins
Two fistful of images that defined SoCal’s glam, punk, roots scene, Scarpati’s work is unrelentingly torn from the streets, bars and alleys.
About This project
Capturing the nascent moments in California punk, glam and roots that was torn from the streets, internationally acclaimed shooter Scarpati made his reputation revealing the intensity, beauty and artists as they were. Revealing and iconic, from the man who lived it with them, Cramp, Slash & Burn celebrates the bands that defined an era — Social Distortion, Janes Addiction, Fishbone, LA Guns, TSOL, Kix, Poison & the Cramps — as they exploded into cultural forces as well as compelling musicians. These images — are lightning bolts of a time gone, but still as electric in reflection as they were in the moment, taken by a man who was there, in the moment, a peer and an artist evolving into a career that includes covers for some of the 80s biggest selling acts. It is the charge of the music, the inherent charisma of the artists, the singularity of the creativity that defines CSB, pictures from the most combustive time of pop creativity since the Beat Generation.
Book available via blurb.
Read more on Scarpati & Capture Integration here.