The punk house raised us: interview with @punkhousedc
An intimate Instagram glimpse of scenes past
If you, too, were staring at your phone for a year, you too may have found @punkhousedc, an anonymous account posting photos from DIY days past. In Instagram’s polished visual milieu, these images are arrestingly unrefined — tender, funny, sometimes bittersweet. I know the scene had a long history before I ever crushed my first beer in sweaty house show basement, and you can always spot the punk elders at shows— but seeing these photos still feels intimate. A documentary look at something so specific and hyperlocal, so personal, feels special. These kids are eager and carefree, even when they’re mugging for the camera. There’s real abandon, real joy. I sometimes find myself looking for my own face in photos from 2004 because the feeling is so familiar. @punkhousedc reminds me of what I’ve been missing this past year.
We slid into their DMs to ask a few questions about what they’re trying to capture and how a scene like ours survives and thrives. See their unedited answers below, then slide into their DMs to submit your own DIY visual ephemera.
To start (if you’re willing), we’d like to know a little more about you. Are you one person or a top secret undercover punk posting ring? What generation of punks do you belong to?
This account is moderated by one person, who chooses to remain anonymous.
Tell us about your curatorial approach, as photo enthusiasts or as ethnographers. What was your motivation for starting the page? What kinds of feelings are you trying to cultivate for your viewers?
All posts shared on this page are contributions, meaning the account depends on submissions to continue posting photos.
The pandemic has created an especially isolated and lonely social climate, which seems to have inspired several similar accounts in different cities across the country.
This account was created to help remind those in the DC punk community of when their lives didn’t feel so disconnected and static.
A comment was made early in the creation of the account which stated that the page is nothing short of “toxic nostalgia,” and to a degree, that person is right! However, sharing nostalgic feelings for our culturally formative years seems like a less toxic coping mechanism for many of the discordant sensations we’re continuing to endure right now.
The punk house is just one aspect of the punk culture crucible. We’re curious how other spaces — zinefests, punk bars, archives like this one or the DC Punk Archives — help foster a community. What are some of the components of a thriving scene?
All of those things are required to foster a healthy scene and provide a space that allows others to feel seen and heard. What one person experiences from being present at a punk show might only exist for someone else through reading zines, activism or skill share settings. Although the moderator of this account has been intentional about focusing on lived in settings of the punk scene, some outer elements of DC have been included because they felt like our own homes at times, such as St. Stephen’s Church, the sidewalk outside of the Black Cat, or one of countless minivans on tour.
Your photos feature a mix of new and old. How do you think the scene has changed over the years, and what has stayed the same?
The prevalence of social media platforms has changed everything about how we document our lives, punk scenes included. Many of the photos shared on this account are taken from physical photographs, which means more intention was placed behind capturing the moment — even if that’s only a few extra seconds of consideration. The way that we engage with technology now allows us to capture, edit, and share our experiences, all in under a minute.
That’s neither good nor bad, just different. One could argue that this allows for more easily forgotten moments in current times, though, since the ease with which we can share our experiences has led to a higher output of captured moments.
Do you have an impression of how the scene has weathered the pandemic or where it might be headed now?
This account has slowed down monumentally since the warmer weather began. That’s a good thing, because it means folks are going back outside and trying to reconnect with the things they’ve felt lost from — people and music included. I hope that they can continue on that trajectory, but if they don’t, this account can still be here to offer a memory or a distant smile.
Lastly, how can people submit punk house photos to be featured?
Slip into the DMs, duh.
You can find the whole archive and submit your own photos at @punkhousedc.
