Rare photos: a vision of Blondie you’ve never seen before
When I was assigned to photograph Blondie and its lead singer Debbie Harry in 1978, I began a job that would define my career | See the pictures.
When I boarded the plane in May 1978 to photograph Blondie’s lead singer Debbie Harry in New York, I could not have conceived that there would still be a demand for my images 45 years later.
This was confirmed when, at a book signing in London 2016, a man purchased a book to sign and asked if I had shot the photo of Debbie Harry licking the white label vinyl record with the kiss. I replied, “yes, indeed”. He said, “I show that image to every band I sign”. He was Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records. That image was taken on my first visit to the Big Apple for my first major photo assignment for Telegraph Sunday Magazine.
Over a period of four months, I worked on four major assignments with Blondie, which produced a body of work that resulted in magazine cover stories, album and single covers, tour programs, posters and a photo exhibition. The year 1978 also marked the transition of the New York punk group from cult band to mainstream with its album Parallel Lines’ chart success and later, its single Heart of Glass reaching No. 1 in the charts. From then on, Blondie had tracks played on FM radio and slots on national TV shows, which promoted headline tours both in the UK, Europe and the US.
This book is my visual record of 1978, along with my recollections of working with such an important rock band at a seminal time in its history.
Debbie’s perspective
What I remember most about Martyn was his use of light. A fundamental talent needed by photographers. When shooting with him at the Gramercy Hotel in New York City (where Chris and I were living since our apartment had burned down), we were permitted to use a rooftop suite that was not a part of the hotel’s usual rentals.
It was full of light and Martyn took great pains to capture these brilliant moments of me in a Halston dress, as well as other shots at this location. He liked shooting on rooftops in NYC and wasn’t concerned as much with studio lighting, though he did use additional accent lights as well. It is not easy shooting groups and achieving getting everyone in focus at the same time.
Martyn’s patience worked magic and we ended up with beautiful photos and artwork. Martyn used a hand-held flash that was triggered by the camera in the group shot which I was holding.
We worked the rooftop magic light show to perfection with Mr Goddard. Blondie never looked better!
This is an edited extract from Blondie in Camera 1978 (ACC Art Books), RRP $69.99, out in September (pre-order available).
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