Erwan Illian is a French photographer who moved to New York in the late 1970s. On his first day in the city he decided to work in color, and the following spring he took a class at the International Center of Photography.
Around 1980 he photographed the punk scene at CBGB on the Bowery with a handheld flash and color slide film. He was interested less in the bands than in the crowd, the bar and the walls of the club. After a cold reception from his fellow students he put the pictures away. They stayed unseen for more than 40 years, until Fall Line Press published 30 of them in LIVE AT CBGB's (2026), with a short essay by Greil Marcus.
Illian later left photography and became a cabinet-maker, working on whole projects from design and fabrication to installation.
