It has been confirmed today (September 20th) that a new photography exhibition of the late great David Bowie will be unveiled next month. Entitled Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me Bowie/MacCormack 1973-76, the exhibition will take place at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, and will run from October 17th to June 6th 2021.
The exhibition will comprise 60 shots of Bowie from all around the world. The exhibition will also include some archival photographs taken of Bowie on the Trans-Siberian Express.
It was Bowie’s childhood friend Geoff MacCormack who took the intimate images. After being recruited by Bowie to play in his backing band, Spiders From Mars, McCormack joined his friend for a three-year long tour, capturing priceless photographs of the Starman in the process.
Despite having a clear photographer’s eye, MacCormack had no previous training in the subject when he joined Bowie on the road. MacCormack joined Bowie on numerous world tours, from Aladdin Sane in 1973, to Station To Station in 1976.
In a statement to The Guardian, MacCormack spoke on the candidity of his photographs, saying: “Those holiday snaps, as I call them, are sometimes even better than the one where he looks wonderful and heroic, which in a lot of them he does. They’re holiday snaps really.”
One of the most cherished photos in the collection is Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon, dressed as Ziggy Starman and reading a review before going on stage. Other notable photographs include Bowie in Santa Fe, USA, during the period when he starred in The Man That Fell To Earth.
When speaking on The Man That Fell To Earth era, MacCormack relayed warmly: “You see in some of my photographs how well he looked and how happy he was…It was just one of those idyllic situations and he was enjoying working on that film and he was clearly right for it and it was all going well. That was a really nice period.”
MacCormack continued reflecting on that special time, saying “Sometimes you say: ‘Oh, I wish I would have taken more pictures.’ But I think it could have been irritating, and the attitude of the pictures would have changed…It would have become a nuisance, rather than a sporadic thing where sometimes I had the camera, and sometimes I didn’t.”
Meanwhile, Bowie’s third studio album, The Man Who Sold The World, is set to be reissued in November to celebrate the record’s 50th anniversary. The album will feature completely new artwork, as well as being renamed as Metrobolist, the title that Bowie originally wanted to give the album.
Bowie wanted to title the album as Metrobolist as a tribute to the 1927 Fritz Lang film of the same name. Mercury Records ended up changing the album’s name at the last moment, unbeknownst to Bowie.
The Man Who Sold The World was originally released on November 4th 1970. The fantastic album included tracks such as She Shook Me Cold, The Supermen and After All.