“I'll give you eyes of blue”
Following the success of Sukita’s 'Blows Up' Bowie and Iggy exhibition in Japan back in January, the photographer is taking his 'DAVID BOWIE 1977 IGGY POP' show to Snap Galleries in London, the venue of many previous Bowie photo exhibitions.
Over to SNAP for the lowdown...
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DAVID BOWIE 1977 IGGY POP - Photographs by Masayoshi Sukita
Masayoshi Sukita’s photographs need no introduction to fans of David Bowie. We celebrated Sukita-san’s photographs of Bowie-san with a broad retrospective in 2013. Now we turn the spotlight on 1977 when Sukita-san photographed David Bowie and Iggy Pop – a pivotal year in the career of both musicians.
In April 1977, David Bowie and Iggy Pop visited Japan to promote The Idiot, Iggy Pop’s debut album, which David Bowie had produced. At short notice, Masayoshi Sukita photographed David Bowie and Iggy Pop at Harajuku studio in Tokyo during the visit. He sat them at a small table and photographed them separately. David Bowie tried on a number of leather jackets during the session, while Iggy wore a white shirt and a jacket.
Photographs from that session would be used on the front cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” album, released in October of that year, and on the front cover of Iggy Pop’s Party album, released a few years later.
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Sukita also photographed the pair at the dual press conference to promote both Low and The Idiot, where our boys did a fair bit of larking around.
The main picture in our montage is of Bowie with fan and birthday boy Iggy in Tokyo on April 21, 1977, Pop’s 30th Birthday.
The two page RCA Japanese advert at the top was to promote both Low and The Idiot. Note that both utilise images from the session described above, and this was probably the first use of them.
The Bowie shoot would surface later in the year for the "Heroes" campaign, as would shots from the Iggy session for the Lust For Life tour programme. Four years later one of the Iggy portraits eventually graced the sleeve of 1981’s Party LP and the German Lust For Life 12" single in 1982.
The snap top left of our montage is Sukita’s signed print of the photographer with his subjects.
We’ll announce full details of dates, location and content of the exhibition shortly.
#BowieSukita #BowieLow #BowieIggy #LFL40 #LustForLife40 #BowieSnap