Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive

"I tell you something that I've always been amazed at is looking into a camera lens at someone - and they just change." - Duffy 

Taken by Duffy during the first of Five Sessions with David Bowie as his iconic character Ziggy Stardust. Wearing a costume he had designed with fashion designer Freddie Burretti and posing with a red teardrop 12-string guitar which was a borrowed prop while his acoustic guitar was being painted electric blue. A few weeks earlier, David had chosen this outfit for his iconic 1972 appearance on Top Of The Pops with The Spiders From Mars. A performance which made David Bowie a household name, influencing a generation.

During this time Duffy was one of the few exclusive photographers who then manager Tony Defries allowed to photograph Bowie in the fast-moving early stages of his career. Shot just 5 months before Aladdin Sane in August 1972, Bowie was coming to the end of the UK portion of the Ziggy Stardust World Tour before heading to North America in September.

Unsigned Mounted Open Edition Prints

Our Standard Archival Quality Pigment Ink Prints come in two sizes, the Standard and the Gallery.

The Standard is approx. 7.5″x7.5″ (19.05cm x 19.05cm) in a 12.4″x12.4″ (31.5cm x 31.5cm) mount. Our Standard Size open edition prints are the same size as a 12.4" vinyl album sleeve for convenient framing.

The Gallery is approx. 10.5"x 10.5" (27cm x 27cm) in a 19.75" x 19.75" (50cm x 50cm) mount. Our Gallery Size open edition prints drop straight into 50cm x 50cm frames which are ready available from many retailers. High quality black frames for Gallery prints can be made in house for mainland UK orders. Please contact us if you would like a framed print and a quote will be provided.

All of our images are ready to frame, supplied with a choice of either a black or white acid-free mount. A mount is a paper-based border around framed images between the frame and the image. The mount adds an extra decorative element and also prevents the image from making contact with the glass/perspex. We supply two sizes of mount in either square or landscape/portrait aperture, in three colours - white, black and silver.

As with all our prints, each open edition is handmade, printed, assembled and packed at the Duffy Archive. Each print is embossed with the Duffy Archive stamp, and the reverse of each mount has a sticker detailing a brief history of the session and ink stamped with a logo from Duffy's camera cases. 

Duffy:Bowie Five Sessions (72-80)

The fascinating story behind this timeless session is fully documented in the Duffy Bowie Five Sessions Book told by those who were there.

"He found himself in front of Duffy's lens for the first time, and although this session was not used (and no one is exactly sure why) this encounter was enough to place Duffy at the top of David's list when it came to collaborating on his next LP sleeve, six months later." - Kevin Cann

Limited and Signed editions are available, to discuss options please Contact Us.