"I got into photography not quite accidentally; I had always been curious about it. But my dad was kind of the family documentarian. Not in a professional way—he’s what I would call a ‘Sharper Image dad.’”

So says photographer Farrah Skeiky, who’s made a name for herself documenting a new generation of punk and DIY in Washington and Baltimore, shooting culture both “high” and "low” from renowned venues like the 9:30 Club to dark, dank basements in Columbia Heights. While her photos have appeared in such niche publications as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, she also published a book entitled Present Tense: DC Punk and DIY, Right Now, documenting the scene from 2015 to 2019. Born in Seattle, she moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., while in high school. When her father fell ill, the role of family documentarian fell on her, but soon she began toting her Canon Rebel camera along to the DIY gigs she attended as a teen.