Chronicler of Punk

SOMETIMES, it pays to be in the right place at the right time - preferably armed with a camera, a keen eye and a sense of discovery. Sheila Rock happened to be an art student who spent a lot of time in London's Kings Road in the mid-1970s, just as a cultural revolution of sorts was taking root. She took a lot of pictures then and - because of their lasting impact on culture and society - ended up as a chronicler of the phenomenon known as punk.

Kings Road was the epicentre of the movement. The circles Rock moved around in included fellow students, musicians, dropouts and disaffected youths - people who had something to say (or sing) about a society that was in the throes of a serious economic downturn. In effect, they were mad as hell and they weren't going to take it anymore - and they expressed their feelings in the way they l…