Chris Stein

Blondie guitarist Chris Stein talks about New York during the punk years, and illustrates it with a selection of images from his new photo book.

The Blondie guitarist talks about New York during the punk years, and illustrates it with a selection of images from his new photo book.

Iwas at the School Of Visual Arts in New York, and before that I had a close friend who I grew up with in Brooklyn who was a really great photographer. He was getting stuff in the newspapers and worked with [celebrated American photographer] Diane Arbus. He was a big influence. With the new book, I’m trying to give a feeling for the atmosphere and what it was like for us in the city and what the streets were like. It’s not focused so intently on the music scene; I wanted to give a feel of what it was like being there.

Were we inspired by New York as a band? There was always this struggle that was going on. I don’t think we considered New York inspiring, but it was great that everyone was connected. Everyone knew each other. There was no big scene, maybe just a couple of hundred people at the most, early on. People were frequently complaining about the city being so dirty and horrible and getting robbed, and I don’t know that was seen as a direct inspiration – even though it probably was affecting everything that was going on.

The music and arts scene in New York at that point was not part of the mainstream the way it is now. Young people now see being in the music and arts scene as a career choice, and that just wasn’t part of the equation then, it was very much an outsider thing to do.

New York is very similar to what’s going on in London. You used to have all these neighbourhoods, they had all their own characteristics, now they’re all becoming the same. It’s very similar. There were fewer people on the streets, too. It was much less crowded and there wasn’t any kind of huge tourist trade like there is now. I still much prefer Times Square when it was more horrible back then than it is now – I don’t really wanna be in a Disney movie when I’m walking round the streets.

I like street photography. I look at Instagram and there’s some great photography. It’s something I’ve always been drawn to. With camera phones and social media, people are taking pictures that they don’t know are great. Every now and then I’ll see some amazing photo and you can tell the person didn’t realise how great it was, it’s kind of an accident. The fact that everything is being documented is interesting. I like phone cameras. I use them all the time. I have a film camera but I’m too lazy. There’s a big difference between going out with a camera that can take 1,000 pictures and one that can take 35. To me, film now is just a fetish – like vinyl.

If Blondie had never happened would I have become a photographer? Possibly. Although I probably would have just been in another band. Photography always attracted me, but I didn’t think of it as a career choice or a money-making thing, I just did it because I enjoyed it.