New book collects the punk photography of Naomi Petersen

Photographer Naomi Petersen is getting her first solo collection. Assembled by her brother, Christopher Petersen, "Shot at the Speed of Sound: The Photography of Naomi Petersen" is out October 31 through Sumerian Publishing as a 152-page, 12" x 12" hardcover with a dust jacket. Pre-orders are being handled through Punk Life Naomi.

Born in Japan and raised in Los Angeles, Petersen found punk as a teenager after seeing The Clash with her brother. At 18 she became the house photographer at SST Records, shooting promo images and candid frames of Black Flag, Descendents, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, Meat Puppets and Sonic Youth.

From 1982 to 1994 her camera also documented Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Misfits, Circle Jerks, Fear, NOFX, Screaming Trees, Dinosaur Jr., Corrosion of Conformity, D.R.I., D.O.A., Pantera, Fugazi, Scream, GWAR, plus early Guns N' Roses and Nirvana. Her work ran on hundreds of album covers and inserts, flyers, magazines and fanzines. In 1989 she moved to Washington, D.C., photographing Dischord Records artists and working at the 9:30 Club, where nightly access led to shots of Fugazi, Faith No More and Nirvana in 1990.

Petersen stepped away from photography in 1994 and took her last known pictures two years later. She died of liver failure on June 13, 2003, at 38. Christopher has since worked to preserve and restore the archive, which has appeared in exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Norway and at The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas. The book features contributions from Henry Rollins, Deborah Rutherford (Debbie Patino), Thurston Moore and Christopher Petersen.