Blondey 15-21

Yorkshire boys, Palace skateboarders and ceremonial troops have all formed the subjects of Alasdair McLellan’s books, and yet the photographer’s new publication focuses on a single person: Blondey McCoy.

McLellan met McCoy back in 2013, when the latter was just 15. He shot him soon after and continued to do so for the years that ensued. Seven years later, Blondey 15-21 brings together these images – 150 in total, self-published by McLellan and M/M Paris in an edition of 2,000.

Shot in McLellan’s typically sun-drenched style, these photographs capture a formative time in the skater, artist, designer and model’s life: his journey out of adolescence and into adulthood.

“A lot has happened to Blondey since 2013,” writes Jo-Ann Furniss in the foreword. “He is now 21 years old, on the cusp of turning 22 – although, by his own admission, it feels more like 32. A weariness has crept into his demeanour. This replaced his earlier shyness. In between there has been drunkenness, obnoxiousness, coke bloat, fragility, vulnerability, charm, humorousness, imperiousness, kindness, intelligence, honesty – and sometimes all of the above, all at once.”

“Along the way, he lost a front tooth – he can’t really remember how – and people have watched him being knocked over by a black cab many hundreds of thousands of times. He’s gone from Bambi to ennui, you can see it in his eyes; it’s all in the pictures.”

Here, alongside an exclusive set of images from the book selected for Another Man by McLellan, the photographer shares his own reflections on Blondey and the images he’s taken of him.

This strictly limited archive copy includes a reversible dual-sided dust-jacket poster, and a protective plastic cover with sticker.