David Bowie Scary Monsters Smoking

Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive 

Taken by Duffy during the last of the Five Sessions with David Bowie in 1980. By this time, Duffy was winding down his photographic career. His studio was no longer filled with cameras, lights and famous faces of the era. It was replaced with tools for his new venture - antique furniture restoration. Without a studio or assistant, Duffy turned to his son Chris for a venue to shoot David Bowie, the only person who could persuade him to get back behind the lens.

Bowie asked costumer Natasha Korniloff to make him ‘The most beautiful clown in the circus.’ She described David as ‘Always a lot of fun to work with.’ David's New Romantic/Commedia dell'arte variant outfit was a throwback to his earliest costume experience, starring in Lindsay Kemp's Pierrot In Turquoise - a costume also designed by the late Natasha Kornilof.

Bowie began to pose as the perfect pierrot, distressing his look throughout the session until he was reduced to a dishevelled, smeared, smoking clown.  This image was included as an insert in the 'Ashes to Ashes' 7" single sleeve and around the edge of the cover. There were three variations and four inserts of 'stamps' to collect. Bowie coloured in the images with vivid coloured pens giving the stamps a childish, playful Warholian style. This image had a cross put through it, reminiscent of a selection on a contact sheet.

Much like the Lodger shoot a little over a year before, Bowie had employed Duffy as the photographer in collaboration with a graphic artist, a position filled this time by Edward Bell, whom Duffy had previously introduced to Bowie. After the shoot, Duffy took his chosen image to Edward Bell to add his graphic contribution. Fully expecting Edward Bell to paint directly onto his print, Duffy's image was almost completely obscured by Bell's painting. Although David loved the cover, Duffy was deeply hurt that his photograph had been despoiled by Bell.

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.