Stephanie Chernikowski moved to New York City from her native Texas on Columbus Day of 1975. She began working as a photojournalist shortly before her move and has continued to view life through a lens. Her concentration has been on 35mm black & white portraiture and documentation of the downtown music and arts scene, with occasional digressions.
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In 1996, 2.13.61 Publications released "Dream Baby Dream: Images from the Blank Generation, a documentary film in stills," her record of the punk years in New York City. Critically acclaimed it was nominated for a Firecracker Award (the ABA's Independent Press category) for the outstanding art/photography book of the year. The following year she was project coordinator of and a contributor to Blank Generation Revisited: the Early Years of Punk Rock, published by Schirmer Books/Simon & Schuster in which six of the era's leading photographers presented photo essays on the period drawn from their contributions to a long-running traveling show.
Chernikowski's images have been commissioned and included in cds by such diverse artists as R.E.M., Henry Rollins, the Ramones and Joey Ramone, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Gary Stewart, Delbert McClinton, Elvis Costello, Waylon Jennings, Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion, Daniel Lanois, Alex Chilton, The dB's, Alan Vega, The Cramps, Roky Erickson, Richard Hell, Richard Lloyd, Eric Ambel, Coyote Shivers, Laura Cantrell, Will Rigby, and Amy Rigby. as well as Sony Music, Rhino Records, Warner Bros. Records, Atlantic Records; and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Her photojournalism has appeared in numerous publications, books, films, and videos around the world, some of which include The Village Voice, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Austin Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, New York Daily News, Tokion, the Journal of Country Music; New Music Express, Melody Maker, Mojo (UK). It is included in videos aired by BBC, A&E, VH1, and PBS. Books include CBGB & OMFUG (Abrams): The Portable Henry Rollins (Villard); Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues, How the West Was Worn, American Roots Music (Abrahms); PUNK (Cassell, UK, Thunderís Mouth, US); Please Kill Me (Grove), Rolling Stone Book of Decades (Chronicle); Trouble Girls:Women in Rock (Rolling Stone/Random House); Rolling Stone Book of Life and Rolling Stone Book of Rock (Rolling Stone/Running Press); R.E.M./Fiction (Virgin Books); The R.E.M. Companion (Schirmer Books/Simon & Schuster), High on Rebellion: Inside the Underground at Maxís Kansas City (Thunderís Mouth); Youíre So Cold Iím Turning Blue (Viking Penguin); Country Music Encyclopedia, Illustrated History of Country Music (Times Books/Random House).
As the work has acquired historical significance, demand has increasingly moved to galleries. Chernikowski's solo shows have included "Rough Magic: Punks NYC 1970s," at Great Modern Pictures, NYC and Maxwell's, Hoboken; "On the Bowery" at BLVD, NYC; and "Late Night Reruns and Coming Attractions," Congo Bill/Danceteria, NYC. Some of the group shows in which her work has appeared are ìbande ‡ partî New York Underground 60ís, 70ís, 80ís at galerie du jour agnËs b Paris; "Blank Generation Revisited," Earl McGrath Gallery and CBs 313 Gallery, NYC, Stichting Melkweg, Amsterdam, Lubbock or Leave It, Austin TX ; Janet Wallace Fine Arts C, St. Paul, MN; "The Cool & the Crazy," Earl McGrath Gallery, NYC, Candace Perich Gallery, Ridgefield CT, Govinda Gallery, Washington DC; "Ascent of Western Civilization", Threadwaxing Space, NYC; "The Last Party: a history of nightlife," Serge Sorrokko Gallery, New York & San Francisco; "Texas Photography & Texas Music Photographers," New Braunfels Museum of Art & Music"; "Angels: from Cherubim & Seraphim & Lucifer's Children,"Melkweg Gallery, Amsterdam; "Man and Peace, Third International Photo Exhibition", traveling USSR; The Village Voice group show, Overseas Press Club, NYC. After the World Trade Center attack, she participated in Here is New York, whose archives have been donated to the New York Public Library and the Smithsonian.
Chernikowski is also a published writer on lifestyle and popular culture for books and periodicals, most notably for The Village Voice, where her work was accompanied by her photographs.