Rare photographic memories capture star act’s charisma
The world may feel a bit like Life on Mars right now but here’s an elegant reminder of those Golden Years. David Bowie was 47 when his beauty was captured by celebrated photographer Kate Garner during a shoot in LA, writes Fiona Evans.
Zebra One Gallery has marked what would have been the music legend’s 73rd birthday this month, five years after his death, with release of three rare images in an exclusive, new series of signed colourways.
In a poignant footnote, they are the only Bowie images Kate has left, after her entire photograph collection was stolen from storage in LA 12 years ago.
Fortunately, a friend had rescued this slice of history by keeping a handful of prints and negatives in his London studio.
The images are from an extraordinary shoot in 1995 with the Starman, which saw him tied up with ropes and
suspended from the ceiling, wrapped in bandages and put inside a giant tube.
And he made quite an impression on photographerturned-singer Kate.
“I was never a crazy Bowie fan, preferring the rough edges of Iggy to David’s personas, but after spending an afternoon with this magician, I found him to be one of the most amazing humans I have ever met,” she recalls.
“He was incredibly charming and had researched who I was and discovered that I had worked with his friend and producer Tony Visconti, who said that David was one of his favourite artists to work with.
“He even learned the words to my songs and sang them to me over the lunch table, while staring directly into my eyes. He also showed me photographs of his paintings and asked me to give a critique of them. This, along with the fact that he had a translucent beauty at the age of 47, made him pretty hard to resist.”
The challenging shoot was for two different magazine covers in one afternoon, and both Esquire and Raygun wanted creative control. But Bowie made the experience as easy as possible, by happily allowing Kate to suspend him from ropes and put him inside a tube.
“The only request David balked at was me photographing his naked back from behind, because he had scoliosis,” said Kate.
“After we had finished, David asked me if I wanted to do another, more intimate, easy-going session and did I want to photograph Iman, his wife? Yes. Yes please!
“At that time I lived in an old ’40s apartment in LA with beautiful light. I envisioned photographs of him on the white bed with sunlight pouring in over his white skin.”
But the second session was never to be.
Zebra One Gallery owner and curator, Gabrielle Du Plooy said: “We’re so excited to be able to share this
amazing piece of history. To celebrate what would have been his birthday, these three rare images are being sold exclusively through us, with gold and pink editions as well as black and white.”
Thoughts turn to Bowie this month, which sees the fifth anniversary of his death.
“I’m sad he left Planet Earth so soon,” said Kate. “I miss his presence.”