Jesse Fischer | Photographer and Graphic Designer
Jesse Fischer was in his early teens in Northern California when he started making magazines. Skate/Punk Mag came first, in 1983, followed by Slime Zine in 1984 — cut, pasted, and stapled together using his father's camera and the photocopier at his father's workplace, then sold for twenty-five cents each at school, at skate spots, and at punk shows. He was an avid skateboarder and punk rocker documenting his own scene. The zines were his first work in both photography and graphic design, the two tracks he has run in parallel ever since.
Education
Fischer studied photography and graphic design through classes at San Francisco City College and extension classes at the Art Institute, alongside hands-on darkroom training at Thrasher Magazine.
Professional Background
From 1991 to 1994, Fischer worked at Thrasher Magazine in San Francisco — first in the darkroom developing film and making prints, then as staff photographer, primarily covering the punk, hip hop, metal, and hard rock scenes of the Bay Area. In 1994 he relocated to Los Angeles to become full-time Art Director and Photographer at Epitaph Records, a title he had already given himself at thirteen on the masthead of his own zines. Over the following years he photographed and designed what are now considered classic album covers for Rancid, NOFX, Pennywise, and Bad Religion.
Album Art and Design
Fischer's best-known cover is Rancid's ...And Out Come the Wolves (1995): a tattooed, mohawked punk with his head down on his crossed arms, set against the stencil-style red, black, and white Rancid logo. The pose references the cover of Minor Threat's 1981 self-titled EP.
He has created album art and photography for Fat Wreck Chords, Amphetamine Reptile, New Red Archives, Interscope, Elektra, Epitaph, Hellcat, Anti-, BYO, and Roadrunner Records. Credits include:
...And Out Come the Wolves, Rancid, 1995
Burn My Eyes, Machine Head, 1994
Pump Up the Valuum, NOFX, 2000
Publications
Fischer's photography has been published in Rolling Stone, Spin, The New Yorker, Communication Arts, NME, Alternative Press, and Billboard, along with numerous skateboarding and music counterculture titles.
Exhibitions
Fischer's work has been published internationally and exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas. In 2024, the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas presented his solo exhibition Photohead, shown alongside My Shot, the museum's exhibition honoring female punk photographers.
His subjects have included Motörhead, the Ramones, Rancid, Merle Haggard, and Wayne Kramer. He continues to shoot around the world and has recently turned to portrait work, including a new project photographing renowned tattoo artists.
Jesse Fischer lives and works in Los Angeles.