Alison Braun (b. 1966, Los Angeles, California) | Photographer | Writer | Archivist
Alison Braun was born and raised in Studio City, California. Her father — a serious amateur photographer, gave her first camera, a Pentax K1000, and taught her the qualities of light. Inspired at eleven by watching a photographer work the pit at a KISS concert, she traded the tranquility of landscape photography for the raw energy of the Sunset Strip clubs at fourteen. On August 3, 1981, at fifteen, she brought her camera to the Whisky a Go Go and photographed Wasted Youth and the Circle Jerks — the first roll of film in a career that has now spanned more than four decades documenting punk, hardcore, heavy metal, and grunge.
Training
Braun learned photography first under her father, then went on to work as a master photographic printer in Los Angeles and Seattle, studying studio photography under Saulius Pempe at his Seattle studio.
Professional Background
In the early 1980s, Braun provided photography services for Mystic Records, the Hollywood independent hardcore label, and wrote scene reports and conducted band interviews — under the byline "Mouse" — for Flipside, the magazine that first published her work, as well as for Maximum Rocknroll and We Got Power. After college she moved north to Seattle, drawn by the city's emerging music scene, where she continued concert photography and expanded into portraiture and advertising work as a photographer and print buyer. Her archive today documents more than 250 bands and is represented by Getty Images archival (previously also Corbis). Braun is a Co-Founder, Archivist, and Staff Photographer of the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, where she also serves as photo historian and curator. She has also spent much of that time working in parallel as a technology consultant.
Album Credits
Braun's photography appears on nearly 40 released records, most notably:
Don't Be Mistaken, Agression, Better Youth Organization, 1983 (back cover photography)
The Crew, 7 Seconds, Better Youth Organization, 1984 (booklet photography)
Mommy's Little Monster, Social Distortion, 13th Floor Records, 1983
S & M Airlines, NOFX, Epitaph Records, 1989
It's In My Blood!, Bl'ast!, SST Records, 1987
Steel Mill, Willard, Roadrunner Records, 1992 (art direction and photography)
The Very Best Of Testament, Testament, Atlantic/Rhino, 2001
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (2003 remaster), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Capitol/EMI
Under The Guillotine, Kreator, Noise/BMG, 2021 (anthology box set)
Live At CBGB's 1982, Bad Brains, Radiation Reissues, 2026 (front cover)
Additional credits span Dr. Know, Channel 3, Sin 34, Ill Repute, Gruntruck, Bad Religion, the Descendents, and the Goo Goo Dolls, most under the name variants Alison "Mouse" Braun and Allison Braun.
Books
Braun has authored two books:
IN THE PIT: Punk Rock Photos 1981–1991, No Plan Records, Berlin, 2021 (70+ black-and-white photographs and flyer art from the Los Angeles hardcore scene; an expanded edition is in preparation)
SHOT IN THE DARK ~ IN THE PIT Vol. 2 ~ Metal & Thrash in the 80's & 90's, 112 pages featuring 59 metal and thrash bands
She has also contributed essays and photographs to Punk Rocker (2016), Punks Listen, Prodigal Rogerson, Disco's Out… Murder's In!, We Were Going to Change the World, and Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion.
Press & Magazine Credits
Braun's photography and writing have appeared in Flipside, Maximum Rocknroll, We Got Power, Rolling Stone, Revolver, SPIN, Billboard, and KEXP, along with feature interviews and cover stories in New Noise Magazine, Razorcake, The Big Takeover, No Echo, Ox-Fanzine and Trust (Germany), Staf Magazine and Muzikalia (Spain), MoPOP Blog, Dead Relatives Magazine, and Idioteq.
Exhibitions
Braun's exhibition history spans a 2012 solo retrospective at Design Commission Gallery, Seattle; the 2020 group shows Body of Work: Tattoo Culture at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture and Permanent and Natural at the Carnegie Center for Art and History; a 2021 solo exhibition at Wyrd War in Portland marking 40 years of punk and metal photography; and, since 2026, recurring exhibitions at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, including Fast As Hell. Louder Than Both and My Shot.
Alison Braun lives and works in Seattle, Washington.
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