Famous Alumna Photographer Connects with Our Girls

To bring learning to life for our girls, we often invite in working professionals to share their experiences. Recently world-renowned photographer Ebet Roberts '63 visited our digital media class to discuss how her career got started in New York in the 1970s.
She explained how when she stepped out of her comfort zone it opened up a career she never imagined. Some of her favorite people to photograph were Bob Marley and Tom Petty, and Michael Jackson was the most charismatic person she has ever met.

While still a student at Hutchison, Ebet Roberts ’63 studied art under renowned artist Billie Price Carroll ’39. After graduating from Memphis College of Art, she moved to Colorado and later to New York City to begin a painting career. Roberts began photographing performances at New York’s CBGB music club, which would become a famous forum for American punk and new wave bands including The Ramones, Misfits, the Patti Smith Group, The Police, The B-52s, Blondie, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and Talking Heads. Since then, Roberts has continued to capture the essence of talented musicians through photography. Her work has been syndicated and exhibited worldwide and is included in MTV-VH1 television specials, music anthologies, posters, advertisements, galleries, and private collections of rock, jazz, and classical musicians, including Bob Marley, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, R.E.M., The Ramones, The Cure, The Pretenders, Robert Plant, Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Bon Jovi.

Roberts’ photographs have been reproduced in innumerable publications, including Rolling Stone, SPIN, GQ, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, People, USA Today, and The Village Voice, and are also in the permanent collections of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Seattle’s Experience Music Project, The Grammy Museum, and The Hard Rock Cafe.

In 2014, Hutchison recognized Roberts as a Distinguished Alumna for her extraordinary accomplishments.

To see some of her photography, click here.
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