Blondie, Debbie Harry, ‘Andy Warhol’s Bad, Black and White’

© Brian Aris
London, U.K. 1978
Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity

‘We crossed paths. New York had an active street life - it was a small community back then. You often ran into people. You knew them already or got introduced. I bumped into Andy on Broadway and 13th street and said hello and we chatted about everything. I suppose this is how we met and our friendship grew from there. I got invited to the factory and knew others that worked for Andy.’ Debbie Harry

'Shortly after meeting Bob and Paula I was asked to photograph ‘a punk princess from New York’ and that began another life long friendship – this time with the beautiful Debbie Harry from Blondie. I loved Debbie’s work and her originality, which seems to be a feature of all the people I started shooting then. But Debbie is also blessed with one of the most beautiful faces I have had the pleasure to photograph and that really was a bonus.' Brian Aris for the Independent

'I started shooting Debbie in 1977 when she first came to London. The music press office would call and ask if I wanted to do pictures of people they were promoting and one day they were sending this new girl from New York - a 'punk princess' is how they described her. This was a real turning point in my career. I'd just come away from journalism and started shooting in studio. I wanted to be a photo journalist and I didn’t see myself doing studio work, but the close ups of these photographs were really well received and it convinced me that shooting famous people could be fun. When Debbie walked in I was knocked out by how she looked.' Brian Aris

Brian Aris began his photographic career as a photojournalist, working for a London agency. A series of frontline assignments took him around the world covering various humanitarian crises from Northern Ireland and Lebanon to Palestine, Africa and Vietnam. He then decided on a complete change of direction and opened a studio in London where he started photographing fashion and glamour models for newspapers and magazines. Next he turned away from the model world to concentrate on the music industry that was exploding in Britain and gradually broadened his studio work to include pop and rock stars. 

Brian Aris has covered every aspect of the music scene from punk rock, glam’ rock and straight rock ‘n’ roll to the emergence of the boy bands and then the girl power. His photography has been on show at The National Portrait Gallery in London, the prestigious Recontres D’Arles exhibition in France, and at the Royal Circle of Art in Barcelona. His archive represents one of the largest individual collections in the United Kingdom.

National Portrait Gallery
The Times
Harpers Bazaar
Wall Street International Magazine
E.S.
Telegraph
Volta Cafe
King’s Road Rock
It’s Nice That
Culture24
Independent

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