On Thursday, December 20, the Morrison Hotel Gallery hosted Blondie’s Chris Stein book signing to celebrate the release of his latest photo book Point of View: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene. Similar to his extremely successful last book, Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk, Chris’ new book features a collection of personal moments and visually impactful photographs of New York City in the 60s and 70s.
His most famous work includes portraits of his fellow musicians from the rock’n’roll era, including the Ramones, Joan Jett, Keith Richards, and of course, his fellow bandmate Debbie Harry. Although his book includes an eclectic bunch of cultural celebrities from William Burroughs to Andy Warhol, he also includes pictures of children sitting on apartment stoops, Coney Island, run-down blocks, and graffiti Subway stops.
One of his most poignant stories was accompanied by a photograph of a fenced basketball court that Chris walked by every day. On one of his daily walks, he noticed a letter attached to the chain-link fence. “I passed the fence every day, and every day there’d be another note. The notes were sometimes written on the foil from a cigarette pack, on the white paper side, and sometimes written on pages pulled from a little pocket-sized spiral notebook,” explained Chris. The author of the letter was one Andrew Creechy who he and his daughter were being denied social security monies. It’s stories like these that populate the book and make it utterly personal and influential. Chris’ book is now available for purchase and makes a perfect Christmas gift.
