Aladdin Sane: 50 Years Exhibition

Excellent exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall to mark 50 years since the release of the Aladdin Sane album by David Bowie.

I was expecting an over stylised show about the album but it concentrated on the iconic album cover of Bowie with a lightning bolt across his face taken by Brian Duffy. Most of the material came from Duffy’s archive and was used to set the scene and tell the story of the photo session.

I loved a section on album covers explaining how Sgt Pepper was the first album to have such an ornate, artistic one. Prior to that covers had been quite bland pictures of the artists. There was a wonderful selection many of which I not only recognised but have.

The show explained how one requirement of the shoot was to cost a lot of money! Bowie’s manager   calculated that if they ran up a big bill the record company would have to put money into marketing to recoup the costs. Duffy therefore choose an innovative printing process which could only be done in Switzerland.

I loved seeing the contact proofs of the shoot of only 24 pictures and reading about why the image of Bowie with his eyes closed was chosen. They also had the photos of the band for the middle of the fold out cover which weren’t used.

This was a great show about process and people.

Closed 28 May 2023


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