Ebet Roberts moved from her native Memphis to New York to paint but switched to photography in 1977, when she began documenting the evolving CBGB scene. Inside the music business she is recognized as the consumate professional who has photographed everyone. Roberts' photography has been reproduced as album and book covers, press shots, and posters for such rock, classical, and jazz musicians as Bob Marley, Neil Young, Ravi Shankar, Phillip Glass, Bob Dylan, R.E.M., The Cure, Natalie Merchant , Robert Plant, Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, Talking Heads, Bon Jovi, and Michael Jackson, and in over 100 books including Blank Generation Revisited and 1988's This Ain't No Disco, The Story of CBGB.

Publications include Rolling Stone, New York Times, Newsweek, Time, People, USA Today, New York, The Village Voice, and Entertainment Weekly. Books include Rock Stars by Timothy White, Frozen Fire: The Story of the Cars by Toby Goldstein, Written in My Soul by Bill Flanagan, The Rolling Stones Illustrated History of Rock 'n Roll by Anthony deCurtis and James Henke, and Empty Places by Laurie Anderson.