David Arnoff turned down a photo session with Def Leppard and left a Van Halen set after roughly half a song. If you want to know what happens when a photographer follows his own taste, pull up a chair and check out his exhibition on The Cramps at the Punk Rock Museum beginning October 23rd, 2026.
Watch the full interview below:
Arnoff joined us to discuss his photographs of The Cramps and his involvement in the band’s exhibition at The Punk Rock Museum. His work includes the cover photograph for Songs the Lord Taught Us, although that session started with a much simpler intention. He liked the band. He wanted to take their pictures.
The Cramps Album Cover
After seeing The Cramps at the Whisky a Go-Go, Arnoff spoke with Poison Ivy backstage about surf music. The conversation eventually led to photographs, with no album cover assignment attached.
“I didn’t set it up as an album cover,” he explained. “I just wanted to do pictures of them.”
Later, Miles Copeland contacted him with news that the band wanted his photograph for the cover. The image would become the work most closely associated with his name.
“Everything else is icing on the cake,” Arnoff said.
His memories of the people in that photograph are warmer than their menacing presentation might suggest. Ivy was reserved and self-contained. Lux Interior was funny. Together, they were quiet, nice people with a sense of humor.
Arnoff also remembers a couple who were almost inseparable. Whenever he saw them, even without the rest of the band, Lux and Ivy were together.
Dancing Without Music
Ask Arnoff for stories about The Cramps being wild and he’s more likely to tell you about having fun.
Some of his favorite photographs came from an impromptu session at KROQ in Pasadena. The band was waiting for Rodney to finish interviewing Sham 69, leaving a little time to kill.
Arnoff suggested taking pictures. Lux and Ivy started dancing in the hallway.
Believe it or not, there was no music.
For him, Ivy’s happy expression captures something audiences might have missed beneath the band’s stage presence: a woman enjoying a dance with her boyfriend. The moment was playful, affectionate and completely unplanned.
“They weren’t trying to be weird or anything,” he said. “They’re a bit weird, but they were not over the top.”
That same wait produced another favorite. Finding Rodney’s car unlocked in the parking lot, Arnoff photographed Lux and Ivy inside. It was so dark he struggled to see what they were doing, let alone focus.
The resulting image appears on the cover of his book Shot in the Dark. He likes its ambiguity. You don’t necessarily need to recognize the people to find the photograph interesting.
Eleven Photographs at The Punk Rock Museum
Arnoff said he has 11 photographs included in The Punk Rock Museum’s exhibition, with prints available for sale. His contribution focuses on the band’s early period with Bryan Gregory.
He remembers immediately thinking The Cramps could become huge. They had funny lyrics, accessible music, a charismatic singer, Ivy’s guitar playing and Gregory’s strange stage movements. Visually, they looked like they had wandered out of a late-1950s juvenile delinquent movie.
As Arnoff tells it, the band stuck to its own decisions, leaving management and labels when those relationships no longer suited them. The Cramps remained The Cramps.
“They certainly deserve their own exhibit,” he said.
The Photos Didn’t Pay the Bills
For all the recognition attached to his work now, Arnoff is blunt about what the money looked like then.
He worked as a chauffeur and in record shops, including Peaches on Hollywood Boulevard and Moby Disc in the Valley. Magazine checks could amount to $10.
Photographing bands did not immediately become a living.
His approach was personal: photograph artists he actually liked. That meant declining Def Leppard and leaving Van Halen after going to the Whisky to see The Mumps.
“That’s not really a good career move, I guess,” he admitted.
He also pushes back on describing his work simply as documentation. Arnoff wanted photographs that could stand on their own, images shaped by a connection with the people in front of his camera.
Another Look Through the Archives
During the interview, Arnoff revealed that a Cramps-focused book was nearly finished. He had also recently rediscovered a frame from the same roll as the album’s back-cover photograph.
He had overlooked it for years and never printed it. Now, he considers it his favorite photograph of the whole band.
Recognition can arrive late. Apparently, so can a new favorite.
As our conversation wrapped, Arnoff’s immediate plans were much less concerned with music history. It was getting dark in London, and he was looking forward to heading outside to feed some foxes.
First, though, he had a request for our eventual museum visit:
“Take some pictures for me so I can see what the hell it looks like.”
Make sure to check out David Arnoff’s exhibition at The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas, NV beginning October 23rd, 2026.
For more information, visit:
Exhibition Location: The Punk Rock Museum
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidarnoff_photography/
Official Site: https://www.davidarnoff.com/
About C² (Christy + Chris)
Concert lovers turned creators. Highlighting creators, bands, stories, sounds, and places you need to know.
Disarray Magazine is an independent media platform established in 2009, spotlighting rap, R&B, punk, hardcore, alternative culture, live music, food, nightlife, and the chaos in between. Created by journalist Christy Buena, C² exists to document the bands, people, and moments shaping the scene.
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