Michael Grecco
The Music Photo Gallery · Represented Photographer
1978–Present

Michael Grecco

B. Los Angeles, California, USA · b. 1958 ·1978–Present
Michael Grecco
Portrait of the photographer
Biography

Michael Grecco is an award-winning photographer, director, and author whose career spans more than four decades across music, portraiture, fine art, and commercial photography.

Born in New York and educated at Boston University, Grecco began his professional career as a photojournalist while documenting Boston's emerging punk and new wave scenes in the late 1970s. During this formative period, he photographed many of the artists who would define a generation, creating an extraordinary visual record of one of the most influential movements in contemporary music history.

In the late 1980s, Grecco relocated to Los Angeles, where he developed an internationally acclaimed career in celebrity, editorial, and advertising photography. Known for his mastery of light and cinematic visual style, he has photographed some of the world's most recognizable cultural figures and produced work for publications including Time, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and People.

His acclaimed monograph Punk, Post Punk, New Wave: Onstage, Backstage, In Your Face, 1978–1991 (Abrams, 2020) brought renewed attention to his early music photography and served as the foundation for Days of Punk, a touring multimedia exhibition presented internationally.

Today, Grecco's photographs are held in private and institutional collections worldwide and continue to be exhibited internationally. His work stands as an important visual record of the artists, personalities, and cultural movements that shaped the late twentieth century.

Michael Grecco lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Michael Grecco is represented by The Music Photo Gallery.

In the artist's
own words
"The spirit of punk was extraordinary. It marked me forever."
Michael Grecco
Selected career exhibitions

Career Exhibitions

A selected record of museum and gallery presentations from Michael Grecco's career.

Type
Exhibition
Venue
Year
Exhibition
Days of Punk, Photo London
Multimedia exhibition premiering photographs from Punk, Post Punk, New Wave.
2021
Exhibition
Days of Punk, La Térmica Museum
2022
Moving image & archive

Films, Interviews
& Television

Documentaries, recorded interviews and television appearances from the archive.

Days of Punk: Official Trailer
Documentary

Days of Punk: Official Trailer

Documentary2021

Days of Punk is a documentary project exploring Michael Grecco's photographs of the punk, post-punk, and new wave scenes from 1978 to 1991. Through rare imagery and personal reflections, it captures the artists, venues, and cultural movements that helped define a generation.

Days of Punk by Michael Grecco
Interview

Days of Punk by Michael Grecco

Interview2021

Extraordinary and previously unseen images of punk and post-punk’s most iconic artists and bands. By Michael Grecco

Selected Press

In the press.

i-D

Gritty Photographs of the 1970s and 1980s Punk Scene

An overview of Michael Grecco's intimate documentation of the American punk and new wave movements, featuring photographs of artists including The Cramps, Buzzcocks, and other defining figures of the era.

The Eye of Photography

Days of Punk at Centro Cultural de Cascais

Coverage of Days of Punk, the multimedia exhibition presenting Michael Grecco's photographs of punk, post-punk, and new wave artists, including The Clash, Ramones, Billy Idol, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and many others.

Boston University

He made the scene at Boston’s hottest clubs, and now his photos are collected in a new book

A feature on Michael Grecco's early documentation of Boston's punk and new wave scene and the publication of his acclaimed book Punk, Post Punk, New Wave: Onstage, Backstage, In Your Face, 1978–1991.