Michael Caine, Bowie and more: David Bailey’s iconic pin-ups – in pictures

 

Jean Shrimpton, Vogue, 1965

David Bailey’s Changing Fashion celebrates the transformational impact of Bailey’s photography in the 60s and 70s. His studio was the perfect expression of his restless intelligence. Alongside the usual photographic clutter, you’ll find tribal masks, oriental boxes and stuffed animals – including several parrots. The studio becomes a portal to a private world to which only Bailey has the key. David Bailey’s Changing Fashion is at The MOP Foundation, A Coruña, Spain, until 14 September. All photographs: David Bailey

Paulene Stone, 1960

Before Bailey, models would sit or stand in the polished perfection of studio shoots. This playful image has the beginnings of a sense of bodily flow that became one of the hallmarks of Bailey’s work. He swiftly established a new vocabulary of body shape and gesture. His pared-down, graphically direct photographs brilliantly caught the brittle glamour of the 60s

Jean Shrimpton, Vogue, New York, 1962

In 1962, Bailey persuaded Vogue to let him take his first great muse, Jean Shrimpton, to New York for his first foreign assignment. The impact of the images they made there, crackling with life and attitude, was extraordinary. As Marit Allen, the editor of Vogue’s Young Idea section at the time, says: ‘Jean and Bailey in New York broke the ground for fashion as it was from them on. They turned the world upside down’

The Rolling Stones outside St. George’s Church in Hanover Square, London, 17th January 1964. Clockwise from bottom left: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Keith Richards and Brian Jones (1942 – 1969).

Inside the Terry O’Neill Retrospective
at Fotografiska New York

By Mekala Rajagopal

Photographed by Terry O'Neill

June 6, 2023

It’s never been easier to feel close to your favorite star—all it takes is a few clicks to find a selfie on their Instagram. But before social media, and even the days of peak paparazzi, Terry O’Neill defined the concept of the celebrity story in photographs you can find at Stars, a new exhibition celebrating a half-century of the photographer’s legacy at Fotografiska New York. “I remember my parents talking about stars in the mid-seventies,” says Fotografiska chair Yoram Roth. “They may as well have been talking about Bible characters. These were people who were so unknown to them that every snippet of information was passed around like scripture. To see a photo in a glossy magazine weekly or monthly made you feel like you had access to something that we now take for granted.” Just before the show’s opening, Roth made time to walk us through some of O’Neill’s most iconic images of Faye Dunaway, Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, and David Bowie.

VIEW FULL IMAGES

See Terry O’Neill’s rare images of David
Bowie’s last show as Ziggy Stardust

By Yasmin Ahram

Photographed by Terry O'Neill

November 20, 2017

In October 1973, British photographer Terry O’Neill received a call from then-manager Tony Defries to shoot an artist by the name of David Bowie—someone he had no idea would go on to become a music superstar, trailblazing style icon, and above all, close friend. The no-holds-barred performance was to be the last appearance of Bowie’s electric alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.

Life Lessons from David Bowie

By Interview

September 1, 2021

Welcome to Life Lessons. This week, we honor our favorite Capricorn— David Bowie — by revisiting his September ’95 cover story conversation with our former Editor in Chief, Ingrid Sischy. The interview, in which Bowie laments some of his more mainstream musical forays, took place a year before the enigmatic artist’s mind-bending appearance as Andy Warhol in the Julian Schnabel-helmed biopic Basquiat. So sit back and grab your spacesuit—you just might learn a thing or two.

Tanino Liberatore / Batman, Mick Jagger and David Bowie

Batman

Tonino Liberatore

BATMAN, MICK JAGGER AND DAVID BOWIE

The controversial art works that sent the world into a spin

Amalia Ulman

The controversial art works that sent the world into a spin

From Duchamp’s urinal ‘Fountain’ to Bowie trolling the art world with his own publishing house, and Insta-art that isn’t all that it seems

The art world means serious business. Paintings and sculptures sell for hundreds of millions of pounds at the drop of a gavel, works are stolen and sold on the black market, and the authenticity of others have divided elitist circles worldwide. Naturally, all this lays the groundwork for some good old fashioned trolling. From surrealists to web-savvy pranksters, art history is plagued with examples of tricks and jokes that at best, have provoked laughter, or worse, stirred international outrage. And yet, beyond their immediate effects on people’s nerves, the most controversial works of art often voice essential critiques to the art world and society.

David Bowie was to the 70s what the Beatles were to the 60s

David Bowie
Illustration by Triunfo Arciniegas

Bowie was to the 70s what the Beatles were to the 60s

BIOGRAPHY

If the Beatles captured a 60s of optimism and love, Bowie was the signature artist of the 70s – distilling paranoia and confusion into pop both euphoric and terrifying

Dorian Lynskey
Wednesday 13 January 2016

D

avid Bowie had no feel for the 1960s. No wonder he floundered. Neither flower-power optimism nor insurrectionary bravado really turned him on: as he wrote in All the Young Dudes: “We never got it off on that revolution stuff.” Even Space Oddity fixated on the loneliness of space travel rather than the pioneer spirit.

The 1970s, though: there was a decade that spoke to his anxieties. A decade of cults, terrorists, scandals, recessions, defeats, environmental panic and a sense of constant crisis – what Francis Wheen described in his book Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Age of Paranoia as “a pungent melange of apocalyptic dread and conspiratorial fervour”. Bowie was to the 70s what the Beatles were to the 60s: a lightning rod, a tuning fork, a mirror. With his mastery of dread, and the excitements of dread, the man who described himself as “an awful pessimist” understood the decade’s strange energies like no other musician.

Iman & David Bowie / That Something Called Love

Iman & David Bowie

THAT SOMETHING CALLED LOVE

BIOGRAPHY OF IMAN

BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID BOWIE

When one of music’s most influential and creative rockstars and a pioneering strikingly beautiful African-American model met in 1992 at a date set up by their common hairdresser, it could have led to a glamorous encounter, a rapid sexy relationship but instead, it was transformed into a romantic marital existence. Even though they are not a superstar couple in the same way as contemporary pop and films stars that fuel their celebrity with a perfectly marketed love story, David Bowie and Iman did however manage to gain an iconic aura thanks to their ability of leading a normal intimacy and finding success in their very own individual careers. No need for an expensive mise en scène, tabloids covers or reality television shows, the couple diffuses its own magnetic feel as David Bowie clearly states: ‘You would think that a rockstar being married to a supermodel would be one of the greatest things in the world. It is’.

THE RED LIST 

Oh, brother: a grieving Angie Bowie is comforted by John Partridge and David Gest

Celebrity Big Brother: Angie Bowie, David Gest and the bleakest farce

This year’s CBB house looked set to be the scene of some entertaining discourse but it entered a depressing new phase after the death of David Bowie


Julia Raeside
Wednesday 13 January 2016 17.53 GMT

I

gave up on Big Brother last year. Until January 2015 I hadn’t missed a single series, but even my high tolerance for the shrill rows and needless added drama of modern reality television had been met. Too many words spoken in anger, not enough interesting conversation about the nature of fame.

Bowie in quotes / 'I wouldn't like to make singing a full-time occupation'

Bowie in quotes 

'I wouldn't like to make singing a full-time occupation'
BIOGRAPHY

From the newly famous singer of Space Oddity to the superstar of latter years, here is Bowie in his own words

Guardian music
Monday 11 January 2016 13.27 GMT

“I’m a writer … I really wouldn’t like to make singing a full-time occupation.”Melody Maker, 1969

“When I used to live in London everybody was always saying how ‘far out’ everything was. Down in Beckenham they’re into the real nitty gritty. They really enjoy life.” NME, 1971

Pop singer David Bowie is seen off at the station by his wife Angie
9 July 1973

Angie Bowie decides to stay in Celebrity Big Brother house after being told of David Bowie's death

Channel 5 says Angie Bowie's decision was 'entirely her choice'

BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID BOWIE

Adam Withnall
January 11, 2016

David Bowie's ex-wife Angie Bowie has decided to stay in the Celebrity Big Brother house after being told of the singer's death.

Channel 5 said the 66-year-old had been informed off camera by her representatives, and added that she was given the option to leave the house at any time.

Ms Bowie, who was married to the singer for 10 years until she divorced him in 1980, has made tabloid headlines during her time on the programme with a series of damning comments about the singer, who died on Sunday aged 69.

Iman on David Bowie: ‘I didn't want to get into a relationship with somebody like him’

Iman and David Bowie

Iman on David Bowie: 

‘I didn't want to get into a relationship with somebody like him’

The former model and charity campaigner gives a rare insight into her marriage with the most famous man in music

BIOGRAPHY OF IMAN
BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID BOWIE

ELLA ALEXANDER
Monday 30 June 2014

While it may have been love at first sight for David Bowie when he met his now wife, the philanthropist and former model Iman wasn’t convinced.

The musician has previously said he “was naming the children the first night we met”.

David Bowie and Iman

David Bowie

David Bowie dies of cancer aged 69

BIOGRAPHY

The legendary musician known for musical innovation and experimentation with his image died 18 months after being diagnosed with cancer

Monday 11 January 2016

David Bowie has died, 18 months after being diagnosed with cancer.

The 69-year-old singer’s death was confirmed in a Facebook post from his official page:

“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief.”