Description
Size A1
Debbie Harry – Blondie – Rare 5 x 4 Photo Magazine Shoot Never Used
50 Limited Edition Prints.
Signed and Numbered.
Blondie/Debbie Harry
Founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein
Blondie broke up after the release of their sixth studio album The Hunter
The band reformed in 1997, achieving renewed success and a number one single in the United Kingdom with “Maria” in 1999. The group toured and performed throughout the world during the following years, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.Blondie has sold 40 million records worldwide and is still active today. Their ninth studio album, Panic of Girls was released in 2011.
Debbie Harry — photographed for a magazine shoot at The Worxs Studio in Fulham back in 2000. Sadly, the studio is no longer there, but I remember this shoot very well.
This particular portrait was shot on my Tashihara 5×4 Land Camera. Very old school!
With a 5×4, there’s no rattling off a dozen frames and checking the back of the camera. You work one frame at a time. Focusing is done on a ground glass screen, using a tilt-and-shift system, and everything is slow, deliberate and pretty intense for the person sitting in front of the camera.
So Debbie had to sit there while I disappeared under the dark cloth, got the focus. Reappeared to take the shot.
Six frames later. This is one of my favourites.
Debbie was incredibly patient and seemed to really enjoy what was happening. There was something about the whole process that felt very different from the usual magazine shoot. Much more considered. Much more old school.
The rest of the shoot was done on medium format, but I wanted to make this particular portrait using the 5×4. I’m very glad I did.
The funny thing is, the photograph was never actually used for the magazine. So, all these years later, it’s become a rather rare portrait of Debbie — one that very few people would have seen at the time.
The frame around the photograph is made up from the Polaroid comps from the shoot, which I later pieced together in Photoshop.
Twenty-six years on, I still love the picture — and perhaps even more so knowing it was almost lost to the archives.
Please note that the paper size is always larger than the printed image.Info here.
