For an artist who spent his career constantly reinventing himself, David Bowie remains one of the most instantly recognisable figures in popular culture. His image has become inseparable from his music; from Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane to the Thin White Duke and beyond, Bowie understood the power of photography as instinctively as he understood performance.
Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
That relationship between Bowie and the camera formed the focus of Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens at Lightroom, where six photographers whose work helped define his visual legacy gathered to share the stories behind some of their most memorable images.
Hosted by journalist and author Miranda Sawyer, the evening unfolded chronologically through a series of personal presentations from Richard Young, Denis O’Regan, Geoff MacCormack, Kevin Cummins, Tony McGee and Chris Duffy. Across nearly two hours of conversation, a picture emerged that was both familiar and surprising: Bowie as performer, Bowie as collaborator, and Bowie as a man whose curiosity extended far beyond music.
Miranda Sawyer with Chris Duffy at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
Richard Young: Trust, Timing And The Perfect Moment
The evening began with veteran celebrity photographer Richard Young, whose career has been built on access and observation rather than orchestration. His opening image showed Bowie on stage in New York in 1980 performing The Elephant Man. The photograph immediately set the tone for the evening: intimate, revealing and captured in circumstances that bordered on the impossible.
At the time, cameras were forbidden in theatres. Young bought a ticket for a matinee performance, concealed a Leica M4 and waited patiently for his opportunity. “I probably exposed only half a dozen frames — perhaps eight at most,” he recalled. “Then came the tap on the shoulder. I thought, ‘Right, that’s it.'” Fortunately, he escaped without being thrown out.
Miranda Sawyer with Richard Young at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
The resulting image revealed a side of Bowie audiences rarely saw, stripped of rock-star mythology and fully immersed in performance. More importantly, it demonstrated something Young believed made Bowie unique. “He didn’t need direction,” Young explained. “You never had to tell him what expression to pull or how to stand. He instinctively understood what a photograph needed.”
As the discussion continued, Young offered insight into the philosophy that had shaped his career. “A lot of photography isn’t really about cameras,” he said. “It’s about relationships.”
Building trust, becoming part of the environment and learning how to become almost invisible were all central to his approach. That philosophy was reflected in another image he shared later in the presentation: Bowie backstage with Paul McCartney, the pair joking and mock sparring away from the public gaze. “It’s one of those moments where two enormously famous people stop being icons and just become two friends having fun,” Young said. “Those are the moments I always looked for.”
Miranda Sawyer with Richard Young at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
His final thoughts on Bowie were simple but heartfelt: “Over more than a decade of photographing him, I found him consistently kind, thoughtful and generous.”
Denis O’Regan: Life On The Road With Bowie
If Young provided the perspective of an observer, Denis O’Regan offered something closer to that of a travelling companion. As Bowie’s official tour photographer during the Serious Moonlight and Glass Spider eras, O’Regan spent months at a time alongside him, documenting life both on and off stage. His first image, taken at the Berlin Wall in 1987, wasn’t planned. “We had a day off during the Glass Spider tour,” he explained. “I wasn’t looking for a particular picture. I was simply observing.”
For O’Regan, the most rewarding photographs were rarely staged. “My job was simply to be there when they happened.”
Miranda Sawyer with Denis O'Regan at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
His most entertaining story came via a photograph taken during a journey in a tuk-tuk. “There were three of us squeezed into it,” he remembered. “The exhaust fumes were blowing directly into David’s face.”
The expression on Bowie’s face immediately caught his attention. “I remember looking at him and thinking, ‘This is a photograph.'”
Yet the image prompted a more revealing observation. “People expected some otherworldly rock star. An alien. A mythological figure. But the reality was that he was incredibly sweet and very normal.”
Asked what had surprised him most about Bowie, O’Regan’s answer was immediate. “The thing I always remember is his kindness.”
Miranda Sawyer with Denis O'Regan at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
His recollections of reviewing photographs with Bowie offered some of the evening’s most fascinating insights. Long before photographers could instantly check images on digital screens, O’Regan would send film away for processing and later project the transparencies for Bowie to review. “We’d be going through pictures and he’d say, ‘We’ll keep that one for the book,’ or ‘That could be used for the press.'”
Bowie, he explained, understood photography exceptionally well. “He knew exactly how photographs functioned.”
Miranda Sawyer with Denis O'Regan at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
It was another recurring theme of the evening: Bowie wasn’t simply being photographed. He was actively thinking about how images would become part of his story.
Geoff MacCormack: Photographing A Friend
The emotional heart of the evening arrived with Geoff MacCormack. Unlike the other photographers, MacCormack’s relationship with Bowie predated fame entirely. Childhood friends from Bromley, the pair travelled together extensively between 1973 and 1976, with MacCormack documenting life on the road almost accidentally after Bowie bought him a Nikon camera in Tokyo. “I was learning as I went along,” he admitted.
Miranda Sawyer with Geoff MacCormack at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
His photographs possess a quality distinct from many of the others shown during the evening. Rather than documenting a celebrity, they often feel like personal snapshots. Nowhere was this more evident than in a remarkable image of Bowie asleep aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway during a journey home from Japan in 1973. “David didn’t particularly like flying,” MacCormack explained. “So we took the train across Siberia.”
The image felt startlingly intimate. “A lot of my photographs weren’t taken as a photographer looking at a subject,” MacCormack reflected. “They were taken as a friend looking at another friend.”
The audience visibly responded to the comment. Decades after Bowie’s death, it remains rare to see him photographed with such complete absence of performance.
Miranda Sawyer with Geoff MacCormack at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
MacCormack’s final image showed Bowie writing lyrics for Station to Station at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles. “People often ask what David’s writing process was like,” he said. “The truth is that he wrote on the hoof.”
Miranda Sawyer with Geoff MacCormack at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
Looking at the photograph, MacCormack sees more than an artist at work. “When I look at these pictures now, I see my friend.” It was one of the evening’s most moving moments.
Kevin Cummins: Reinvention As A Creative Gift
Where MacCormack spoke as a friend, Kevin Cummins spoke as a fan who became a chronicler. His first Bowie photograph was taken at Leeds University in 1973 during the Ziggy Stardust tour. “I wasn’t there on an official assignment,” Cummins laughed. “I just wanted to see him and take some pictures if I could.”
The image captured the electricity of Ziggy-era Bowie and marked the beginning of a photographic relationship that would continue for decades. Looking back, Cummins stressed how little photographers know in the moment. “Sometimes you realise much later that you’ve taken something important.”
Miranda Sawyer with Kevin Cummins at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
As his discussion progressed, Cummins repeatedly returned to the idea of visual reinvention. “He was constantly changing,” he said. “Every time you photographed him there was a different visual language. A different look. A different idea.”
Miranda Sawyer with Kevin Cummins at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
For photographers, that evolution was endlessly rewarding. “You never felt as though you were repeating yourself.” Cummins also emphasised Bowie’s openness to collaboration. “If you had an idea, he’d listen.”
Miranda Sawyer with Kevin Cummins at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
Unlike many major stars, Bowie trusted creative people to pursue their vision. “He was interested in the process. He trusted creative people to do what they did best.” For Cummins, that willingness to embrace experimentation was central to Bowie’s enduring appeal.
Tony McGee: Bowie The Creative Collaborator
By the time Tony McGee first photographed Bowie during the Serious Moonlight era in 1983, he was already an established fashion and advertising photographer. His perspective therefore differed from many of the evening’s earlier speakers. “I came from the worlds of fashion, advertising and portraiture,” he explained. “The idea was always to bring David into my world rather than simply photograph him as a rock star.”
Miranda Sawyer wih Tony McGee at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
McGee’s images highlighted Bowie’s fascination with visual culture. “He didn’t simply arrive and wait to be photographed,” he recalled. “He was involved. He knew what interested him. He knew the references he wanted to explore.”
The relationship quickly became collaborative. “He would suggest something and I would build on it. I’d suggest something and he’d respond.”
Miranda Sawyer with Tony McGee at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
One memorable photograph showed Bowie listening to the BBC Shipping Forecast. “There was something wonderfully British about it,” McGee laughed. The image revealed the humour that often existed behind Bowie’s public image.
Miranda Sawyer wih Tony McGee at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
More significantly, it reinforced the evening’s central theme. “A lot of musicians simply endure a photoshoot,” McGee said. “David enjoyed it.” He wasn’t merely participating. “He was helping create it.”
Chris Duffy: Creating Icons
The final chat came with Chris Duffy, custodian of the archive created by his father Brian Duffy or simply ‘Duffy’, whose collaborations with Bowie produced some of the most iconic images in music history. Where much of the evening had focused on documentary photography, Duffy’s presentation explored something different entirely. “The Duffy photographs were collaborations,” he explained. “They were constructed images.”
Miranda Sawyer with Chris Duffy at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
At the centre of the discussion was, inevitably, Aladdin Sane. Today, the lightning bolt portrait is one of the most reproduced images in popular culture, yet Duffy reminded the audience that nobody involved knew what it would become. “You suddenly realise that this image wasn’t inevitable,” he said. “It was one frame among many.”
Miranda Sawyer with Chris Duffy at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
The image’s success reflected the extraordinary creative partnership between Bowie and Brian Duffy. “My father wasn’t simply photographing David. The two of them were creating something together.” That collaboration lasted almost a decade because neither artist wanted to stand still. “Both were interested in reinvention,” Duffy said. “Neither wanted to repeat themselves.”
Miranda Sawyer with Chris Duffy at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
Looking after the archive has only reinforced that understanding. “He wasn’t a passive subject,” Duffy concluded. “He was an active collaborator.”
More Than A Subject
As the evening drew to a close, what lingered wasn’t any single photograph, but the remarkable consistency of the stories surrounding them. Young spoke about trust. O’Regan spoke about kindness. MacCormack spoke about friendship. Cummins celebrated reinvention. McGee remembered curiosity. Duffy highlighted collaboration.
L-R: Kevin Cummins, Geoff MacCormack, Alan Edwards, Denis O’Regan, Tony McGee, Chris Duffy at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
Each photographer had encountered Bowie at a different moment in his life and career. Each approached photography from a different perspective. Yet all arrived at a strikingly similar conclusion: the public saw the icon, they encountered the person behind the image. More importantly, they encountered an artist who understood that photography wasn’t simply documentation. It was another form of creativity; another stage on which ideas could be explored, identities tested and stories told.
More than a decade after his death, photographs of David Bowie continue to fascinate because they capture more than a face. They document an artist in constant conversation with the people around him, challenging them, inspiring them and creating alongside them.
Miranda Sawyer with Richard Young at Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens
As Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens demonstrated, the most enduring images of David Bowie were never created by a photographer alone. They were collaborations.
Coverage of with Bowie Nights: Behind The Lens @ Lightroom, King’s Cross, London on 26th May 2026. Photography by by Kalpesh Patel.
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