It was an unusually cold Sunday of the 13th of December in 1992. Whiney’s I Will Always Love You was at No.1 in the charts. Princess Di & Prince Charles had just announced their split. And David Bowie was spending the day with a photographer named Kevin Davies.
Over the course of the day, Davis shot over 450 stills of Bowie (that’s about 15 rolls of 35mm film) to use in promo material for his upcoming album Black Tie White Noise. Bowie picked a couple out that he liked, and the rest went into storage never to be heard from again.
Until 2020, that is.
That’s when Davies was doing a big ol’ lockdown rummage through his archives and randomly came across them, perfectly preserved, as if they were taken yesterday. So now he’s handed them all over to journalist, author, cultural historian & Bowie fan, Dylan Jones, who has curated the 20 best of them and put them on display – for free – at the Fitzrovia Chapel.
The chapel itself deserves a mention while we’re here too, because it’s a truly stunning hidden central London gem that you may well have wondered past many a time without realising what you were missing. Inside you’ll find soaring vaulted ceilings, with every inch covered with gold mosaic tiles and shimmering stars. On the walls, however, you’ll find those never-before-seen shots of Ziggy himself, captured in a candid & relaxed style, in the prime of the man’s life.
He really was a star, man.
NOTE: The exhibition runs from 1st to the 20th of March this year, it’s all free, and you don’t need to book, just show up. You can find out more here.
Fitzrovia Chapel | 2 Pearson Square, London W1T 3BF
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