Debbie Harry “Heart of Glass” Photographs

ROBERTA BAYLEY (B. 1950)

Deborah Harry Heart of Glass Video

signed, titled, numbered and dated 'Deborah Harry Heart of Glass Video 1978 1/15 Roberta Bayley' (on the reverse)

cibachrome

20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Executed in 1978. This work is number 1 from an edition of 15.

ROBERTA BAYLEY (B. 1950)

Deborah Harry Heart of Glass Video

signed, titled, numbered and dated 'Deborah Harry Heart of Glass Video 1978 6/25 Roberta Bayley' (on the reverse)

cibachrome

20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Executed in 1978. This work is number 6 from an edition of 25.

Two rare cibachrome prints from Roberta Bayley's shoot during the filming of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" video — the song that carried the band from downtown cult status to international chart success. Released as a single from Parallel Lines and directed by Stanley Dorfman, the video was filmed not at Studio 54, as popular mythology has it, but at a short-lived Manhattan club.

Debbie Harry appears in a silver asymmetrical dress designed by Stephen Sprouse, who photo-printed television scan lines directly onto fabric and layered cotton and chiffon on top to produce an op-art shimmer under the lights. The T-shirts worn by the male band members were made by Harry herself. Bayley recalls remarkably few photographers present on set — just herself and the German photographer Dagmar.

"Heart of Glass" reached number one in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and the video became one of the defining images of the new wave and disco crossover moment.

Cibachromes are prized above all other prints for its optical luminosity, absolute colour saturation, and archival permanence: where conventional chromogenic prints build colour by forming new dyes, cibachrome achieves extraordinary depth by replacing existing ones. Because cibachromes have been discontinued, every surviving example is, by definition, the last of its kind.

PROVENANCE:

From the personal archive of Roberta Bayley