The following is a guest post from Richard L. Jones, Music Librarian, Barbican Music Library:
Barbican Music Library is currently hosting an exhibition, Blondie in Camera 1978. Formed in New York in 1974 by vocalist Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, Blondie released their influential album Parallel Lines four years later; it contained a number of worldwide hits including ‘Heart of Glass’ and ‘Hanging on the Telephone’. The exhibition showcases behind-the-scenes images of the band taken by photographer, Martyn Goddard who, over a period of several months during 1978, produced a body of work which was used for single and album covers, as well as featuring in magazine cover stories, tour programmes, and on posters.
The selected prints document the band both in concert and in the studio, backstage, and during photo shoots, and these images are complemented by album covers, tour and concert memorabilia, period cameras, and photographic equipment.
Martyn Goddard said: “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 over 45 years later. Blondie in Camera 1978 at Barbican Music Library is my visual record of those images and memorabilia collected during a seminal time in the band’s history, and I hope that visitors to the exhibition will enjoy being reminded of the band’s energy, rawness, and style.”
The exhibition’s launch coincides with the publication of Martyn Goddard’s book, Blondie in Camera 1978, copies of which he will be signing on selected dates during the five-month run.
Also on display is a selection of items on loan from the Alan Edwards Archive. Alan Edwards, who has handled Blondie’s PR since 1978, is known as the ‘godfather of modern music PR’; as the founder and CEO of public relations firm The Outside Organisation he has represented some of the most iconic artists including David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, the Spice Girls, Prince, Amy Winehouse, Luther Vandross, The Who, Usher and more.
This free exhibition is on display at Barbican Music Library until January 5th, 2026.
Richard L. Jones
(Music Librarian, Barbican Music Library)
Featured image © Martyn Goddard