DAVID BOWIE
The final word on Terry O’Neill’s images of David Bowie, with unseen treasure.
Everyone knows 1974’s ‘Yellow Mustard Suit’ picture session by Terry O’Neill. A new book shows which images Bowie favoured, and which failed the test.
BEFORE TERRY O’NEILL began his photographic career, he was planning on becoming a steward for British Airways forerunner BOAC. Instead, he found himself in the company’s picture unit, where he was introduced to Henri Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the “decisive moment”, the instant which captures the substance of an event within a precisely organised image.
Previously available as a limited run of 500, a new edition of photobook Bowie By O’Neill collects the photographer’s pursuit of such decisive moments with a subject and friend more likely than most to deliver them. Adding new and unseen material, its 500-plus shots take in such encounters as the final appearance of Ziggy Stardust at the Marquee in October 1973, mutt-guesting shoots for ’74’s Diamond Dogs, and Bowie’s mid-’70s meetings with William Burroughs and Elizabeth
Taylor. We also see him
“He was living very fast in 1974, you can see that in his eyes.” TERRY O’NEILL
playing sax with various Stones and Keith Moon at Peter Sellers’ 50th birthday party; contemporary commentary and interview material add further context. Photographer and subject had a trusting working relationship, O’Neill noting that he would give Bowie contact sheets to initial and mark with an ‘X’, depending on his reaction.
These sheets and archival variations on the main images add new intrigue to these memorable sessions. This is particularly true of the out- takes seen here, from 1974’s ‘Yellow Mustard Suit’ magazine shoot in Los Angeles. “He was living very fast in 1974, and you can see that in his eyes,” O’Neill recalled. “[Even so] he was styled to the nines. That bright, bright suit, clashing with his shock of hair; posed with a slight slump of his shoulders; the cigarette dangling from his lips; the large silver scissors pointed down – they are great photos, even if I do say so myself.”