“Debbie Harry And Me”: Shooting The Blondie Singer in 1970s New York City

These photographs were taken in the mid and late 1970s, when everyone was in a band, or wanted to be. Blondie seemed to encapsulate the gritty, cool, grindhouse, cheaper-to-rent, derelict, eccentric New York City that spread tales of fear, new sounds and happenings across the globe, and made you ache to visit.

h/t: flashbak

Debbie Harry, Suzi Quatro, and Joan Jett in a studio in Los Angeles, where Suzi was recording with producer Mike Chapman.

Chris Stein, the group’s co-founder, songwriter and guitarist took many photographs of the hymned Harry. You can see them in his book Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk. After that, check out Stein’s second book of NYC punk photography, Point of View: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene.

Debbie with Martin Rev (left) and Alan Vega (right) of Suicide

Stein reflected in Debbie’s shades

Debbie and David Bowie backstage during The Idiot tour, 1977

“This was in our apartment on 17th street of Sixth Avenue that burned down. We were on tour and my mother called me up and said:”Listen, don’t get upset, but your house burned down.” We never lived there again. We went back and staged that. Allegedly that’s Marilyn Monroe’s dress that she’s wearing, but we can’t prove it.” – Chris Stein, via Smithsonian Mag

Debbie with The Buzzcocks: “Blondie toured Europe with the Buzzcocks in 1978. From left to right: Steve Diggle, Pete Shelley, Debbie, Howard Devoto and Danny Farrant.

From left to right: Chrissie Hynde, Pauline Black (then of Selecter), Debbie, Poly Styrene (then of X-Ray Spex), Viv Albertine (then of the Slits), and Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees, London, 1980

Nile (Rodgers) and Bernard (Edwards) confer about something during the production of Debbie’s first solo album, KooKoo – 1981