David Bowie: Portrait of an Icon

A look back at the legendary ‘Aladdin Sane’ album cover

Upon hearing about the passing of David Bowie, a name that really needs no introduction, we were compelled to write something to commemorate him. We discussed together how we could memorialise the man and his legacy in our own small way. The answer became obvious quite quickly.

The story behind one of the most recognisable album covers on the planet began in 1973 in Primrose Hill, north London. Celia Philo was directing, and Brian Duffy was the photographer. They had set up a small company together named Duffy Design Concepts, and Brian had become well known for rock and roll photography. RCA Records contacted the fledgling company with a proposal — to photograph and design the cover for Aladdin Sane, David Bowie’s sixth album.

In an interview with Stylist magazine, Philo recalled the atmosphere around the shoot in Duffy’s small studio. That evening […] there was just Duffy, myself and Pierre La Roche, a French make-up artist who Duffy chose for the shoot. David arrived all by himself; there was no fanfare, no entourage, not even his then-wife, Angie Bowie.’

He’d seen and done things I’d never even heard of at that time

‘When David came in, my first impression was that of a quiet, polite yet highly intelligent and confident man. He was very friendly and relaxed, but always completely in control of what he was doing. He seemed to have a great sense of self-awareness — he was very young, about 26 or 27 then and only a couple of years older than me, but he seemed so much more mature and I can only imagine that was because of his life experience. He’d seen and done things I’d never even heard of at that time.’

Where the ‘lightning bolt’ make-up came from has long been subject to speculation. Philo recalls that they had seen Bowie wearing lightning flashes before, and came up with the idea after brainstorming ideas in the studio, but Duffy argued that it came from an electric cooker sitting in the studio. Jerry Hopkins’ biography Bowie asserts that Bowie’s U.S. tour the previous year had left him with somewhat mixed feelings — “wanting to be up on the stage performing my songs,” he says, “but on the other hand not really wanting to be on those buses with all those strange people… So Aladdin Sane was split down the middle.” This form of “schizophrenia,” as Bowie describes it, is represented by the lightning bolt, splitting his face in two. Bowie would later confide that the “lad insane” of the album’s title track was inspired by his brother Terry, who had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic.

The origins of the iconic symbol will likely remain as mysterious as the man it adorned, but we do know that the hair was all Bowie. ‘The orange, spiked-up hairstyle in the photo looked exactly as it did when David arrived at the studio,’ recalls Philo, ‘we didn’t have to do anything to it.’

It gave me more satisfaction than any other job I’ve ever done

With the look complete, the team got to work. Bowie was ‘very open, creative and receptive to ideas, and completely comfortable about being made up and photographed.’ They shot late into the night, and all parted ways in the wee hours of the morning. Returning the next day to develop the prints, Philo says she knew it was a hit as soon as the image began to take shape. ‘You know, I did a lot of different things in my design career,’ she recalls, ‘but this was one of the most thrilling. It gave me more satisfaction than any other job I’ve ever done.’

The album would go on to critical acclaim, entering the UK charts at No. 1 and cementing Bowie’s star status, but arguably its cover image would go on to be recognised even more widely, even among those who had never heard of Bowie. Billboard named it as the 23rd best album cover of all time, noting ‘when music fans think of Ziggy Stardust, this is the image they see. The lightning-bolt eye makeup, the red mullet — this is quintessential Bowie.’ The image has influenced pop icons through the years, including Lady Gaga and Kate Moss, and has been parodied and recreated countless times.

Now, as this legend of our time passes on, part of his visual legacy is already obvious. The lightning bolt, the wild hair and those piercing, wide eyes — an icon in every sense of the word.

Republished from Bokeh