Theresa Kereakes has always had a knack for being in the right place at the right time, and usually with a camera ready to capture the moment.

She was in the center of the rising punk movement during the late 1970s as a student in Los Angeles, taking pictures of some of the seminal musicians of the scene. The first autograph she ever signed was for Andy Warhol, who was carrying a magazine containing several photos of Blondie she had snapped.

Kereakes, who was friends with many of the people who helped create the West Coast punk scene and herself got caught up in its creation, said the moment seemed to transpire overnight.

"It was all really organic and natural," Kereakes said. "It's like when you think of whoever you hang out with all the time, that's how it all happened."

More than 30 of her punk music images from 30 years ago — influenced by pop culture, "elevating the banal" and finding beauty in common events — are now on display at Metropolis Gallery in a show called "Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond."

The images include snapshots of the famous and infamous, such as candid shots of a young Billy Idol at a party in Joan Jett's apartment and Iggy Pop's lanky body behind a microphone.

Kereakes grew up in Los Angeles, and at age 4, she picked up her parent's Leica Rangefinder, taking pictures of herself, her sister and their dog.

She said she began making 2½-minute movies with her Super-8 movie camera and knew she wanted to use photography as her way to express herself, letting the images speak for themselves.

"Artists spend their whole life coming up with a language or a means to express all sorts of intangibles, which is their art," Kereakes said. "And people, in general, are never taught how to describe art and culture in intangible things. The adjectives that we're taught are all kind of hackneyed."

However, Kereakes is not afraid to talk about the history of her photos and the background of where they came from.

Kereakes was friends in high school with Belinda Carlisle, who would gain fame as lead singer of the Go-Go's, and Lorna Doom, the bassist for The Germs, considered the first punk band in Los Angeles.

She started taking pictures of musicians popping up and showing up in the city, creating their own "fanzines" of punk music.

She said musicians became entrepreneurs unwittingly, because no one would put out their music.

"If culturally people look back and say, 'Well, the '70s was the Me Generation,' it was," Kereakes said. "But our part of the '70s — the punk rock part of the '70s — gave birth to the entrepreneur generation."

The genesis of the show began in 2004 with a reunion of the Cleveland-based punk band The Dead Boys. They were having a fundraiser for the parents of Stiv Bators, the former lead singer of the band, who died in 1990 after being hit by a taxi in Paris.

Kereakes displayed about 20 of the photos she took in the late 1970s of The Dead Boys and Bators, including three larger-than-life images of Bators that hung on the stage.

She said people started stealing the photos from the show, and she thought there may be a demand to see her images.

At the beginning of 2005 she started taking her photos to a different city each month and started a Web site, punkturns30.com.

Kereakes has had a long career in entertainment, serving as a production supervisor at VH1 and other media outlets.

Today, she said, she is fascinated by the history of Beatrix Potter, who sublimated her love of botany and nature by painting and writing stories, including "The Tale of Peter Rabbit."

Kereakes said it wasn't until Potter's parents died that she was able to get away from the Victorian-era mores that prohibited her from living her own life and was able to do what she wanted.

Kereakes said her own passion was always photography, despite the fact that she always found herself forced into working for others instead of for herself.

But now, she gets to spend her full energy on pursuing her craft.

"I did everything that was expected of me, and now it's my turn," Kereakes said.

"Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond," a retrospective by punk rock photographer Theresa Kereakes, reception today 6-8 p.m., through Jan. 31, Mon. and Tue. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. noon-5 p.m., Metropolis, 154 N. Prince St., 572-9961.

E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com