Pre-order the 2nd printing of Hail Murray - Shipping in February 2025.
Vibrant images from the San Francisco Bay Area Punk Rock Scene in a deluxe hardcover
Murray Bowles photographed Bay Area punk for four decades, capturing its infectious energy, wild creativity, and ragged tenderness everywhere he found it.
From San Francisco’s Mabuhay Gardens to Berkeley’s 924 Gilman—and the countless basements, backyards, and warehouses in between—Murray was there, camera in hand, the scene’s beloved documentarian.
Collected here for the first time, Murray’s classic images chronicle a uniquely dynamic and enduring music community in all its chaos and glory.
Featuring hundreds of images of bands such as Green Day, Operation Ivy, Neurosis, Crimpshrine, the Dead Kennedys, MDC, Special Forces, Social Unrest, Spit Boy, Melvins, Gwar, Soundgarden, NOFX, The Offspring and many, many more.
This collection of photographs documents and celebrates the punk music scene from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s.
Hail Murray
The Punk Photography of Murray Bowles, 1982-1995
By Murray Bowles
Edited by Anna Brown
Introduction by Aaron Cometbus
ISBN 9780867199277
Hardcover, 270 pages, 12 x 9 landscape
"Murray had a vision and he shared it with the world. He showed us ourselves in ways we might never have seen on our own. A chronicler and a maker of history. The East Bay as we know and remember it would not have existed without him." - Larry Livermore, Lookout Records
"When I was younger, I always thought, how is it that a photo can make me dream of transporting to another place and time, wishing I was at that show, seeing what Murray Bowles was seeing?" - Martin Sorrondeguy, Los Crudos, Limp Wrist, photographer
"Murray was a one-of-a-kind talent. He was king of what we photographers call the Hail Mary. He would raise his camera above his head and bam! his flash would go off and godDAMMIT he would get such amazing shots of whatever flailing, high-decibel hubbub surrounded him. All without even looking through the viewfinder. What a legend." - Cammie Toloui, Yeastie Girlz, photographer
