Bowie The Session
I got the call to shoot Bowie in July of ’95. Word was that he was down-to-earth and, true to form, he entered the studio hand outstretched. In his wake was his musical collaborator Brian Eno. Both were in high spirits and immersed in each other’s company. ‘The Session’, as the shoot came to be known, was a brief affair. Post hair and make-up, I was left with 40 minutes of my allocated hour to shoot both personalities. My aim was to create individual images that, when laid out on the page, would connect visually: ‘see no evil', ‘hear no evil’ and ‘speak no evil’ became redacted to simply ‘shush’ and ‘oi’.
In 2011, I received a request for a print to be hung in David’s Manhattan office. It turned out that one of the images from ‘The Session’ was Bowie’s favourite portrait – a remarkable accolade and the highest of praise. To my astonishment, the image he chose was my favourite portrait from the shoot and the least likely shot, or so I thought, that he would like. The portrait was uncompromising: his guard was down, the mask was off, the personality revealed. This was the image of a man looking back from the void through sapphire-blue contact lenses – lost and vulnerable. In 2012, David requested that the same portrait be on the cover of the V&A’s David Bowie Is publication and the last page with the epitaph ‘Bowie Is – The End’.
Iconic portraits of Bowie were unavoidable, he was the master of the lens. I have photographed many celebrities but Bowie is the only star who has attained the status of deity on his all too premature demise.
The Session- Bowie by Gavin Evans is a touching and intimate exposé as Evans ability to unmask his subjects is revealed throughout this earthly depiction of the Starman. It is a vivid portrayal of an irreverent and unguarded Bowie. Gavins portraits resonate as they are a departure from the fashion, posed and stylised depictions of Bowie. Through Gavin’s portraits the audience can relate to Bowie- the man and his humanity. A plethora of Bowie books and biographies have reproduced Evans’ images on their cover including: Lesley-Ann Jones Hero: David Bowie, Chris Welch David Bowie: Changes, Christopher Sandford Loving the Alien and David Buckley Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story. The BBC, CNN, Sky TV and others channels used his images to illustrate Bowie features. The producers of Bowie’s musical Lazarus chose Evans’ photograph as their lead image while The Grammy’s ran his portrait to promote the world’s premier music award ceremony. The Rubens House in Antwerp employed was Evans’ portrait to publicise the return of David Bowie’s Tintoretto.
