Marla Watson was born at the right place at the right time. Her birth at the tail end of 1962 gave way to a coming-of-age in the late ‘70s where she discovered punk rock when a high school friend took her to see X. She felt instant acceptance in the LA punk scene and a sense of self she had never experienced before.  

 

In the early ‘80s Marla was a journalism major in college, when she met a punk boy on the school paper and the two decided to start a fanzine. Marla owned a camera so she became the photographer. The pair managed to put out one issue of the Skank Magazine before breaking up, but Marla kept on going to shows and taking pictures. 

By the mid-eighties the L.A. hardcore scene had become increasingly dangerous and in 1985, Marla, who was tired of injuries and broken cameras, stopped photographing punk and moved on to other forms of music and new interests, continuing to write and take photos for various local magazines. 

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Marla’s photos have been used on LPs by Minor Threat and Channel 3. 

Most of Marla’s work remained unseen until this book. ‘My Punk Rock Life’.

Marla left Los Angeles in 1991 and moved sight unseen to Portland, Oregon where she met her deadhead husband Walt and settled down, raising their daughter Hailey. They are now empty nesters with two spoiled German Shepard’s named Iggy Pup and Strummer Jo.

 

‘My Punk Rock Life’ was created during the Covid lockdown when Marla finally had time to finish this project.

 

Marla’s photography is on display at The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas as well as in the recently released T.S.O.L. documentary ‘Ignore Heroes’ and the upcoming documentary on the Orange County punk scene ‘Where The County Line Ends’. It will also be featured in a documentary about the horror-rock band Haunted Garage as well as a doc about LA punk and gangs currently in production. She will also have photos featured the memoir of Leonard Graves Phillips of The Dickies.