See Wild 1970s David Bowie Photos From Photographer Steve Schapiro
In 1974, David Bowie‘s manager invited photographer Steve Schapiro to spend a day capturing images of the star. The extended shoot yielded the now-iconic cover photos for Low and Station to Station, and led to a fruitful collaboration between the two artists. Now Schapiro is collecting his images in Bowie, a new volume of mostly unpublished photos from powerHouse Books. Preview the book with our exclusive gallery, featuring recollections from Schapiro himself.
“With my first David Bowie shoot in 1974, my assistants and I expected to see a flamboyant wild man arrive, with a large entourage, groupies and cartons of booze,” Schapiro told Rolling Stone. “This was not the case. Calm, quiet and over-intelligent with a bent for the spiritual, we chatted more about philosophy and Buster Keaton than super stars or the weather.”
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Bowie and the Statue
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "In the back of the house in L.A. where David was staying, there was this statue. I never really asked him about it, but there was this strange spiritual connection between the two of them and he kept gravitating towards it. This was a time period when David was very spiritual indeed."
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Bowie on Motorcycle
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "It's 4 a.m. in the morning and I am just finishing up this day's shoot with Bowie on his bike lit by the headlights of a car. He seems to be creating another character for his repertoire."
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Bowie and Cher
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "Bowie on the Cher TV show. Basically a quiet structured TV appearance. I can't say they seemed to be on the same wavelength that day."
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Bowie Takes Target Practice
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "Target practice in New Mexico during the making of The Man Who Fell to Earth. He got a couple of bull's eyes, and was excited when his aim paid off. It was just relaxation."
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Bowie in Shades
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "So I pick up my camera to shoot. He is there in some outlandish outfit and says, 'Wait a minute I’ll be right back.' Twenty minutes passes and he comes back in a totally different outfit. But I never shot him in the first one. A photographer’s nightmare."
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‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "David with the director, Nick Roeg, during a break in The Man Who Fell to Earth. Something on the front page was compelling. Between shots, David was always relaxed but then again so was the character he was playing."
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Bowie in 3D
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "David in 3D – trying out a new persona."
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“Nothing Has Changed”
Image Credit: Photograph by Steve Schapiro, from Bowie, published by powerHouse Books "During the 1974 shoot we took a large studio mirror outside and David started writing on it. This ended up as one of the three album covers in the Nothing Has Changed series. Paradoxically I have seen this CD once with the words Nothing Has Changed written across it, and at another time the word 'Everything.' I think the latter is more correct."