Description
Taken by Duffy during the last of the Five Sessions with David Bowie in 1980. By this time, Duffy was winding down his photographic career. His studio was no longer filled with cameras, lights and famous faces of the era. It was replaced with tools for his new venture - antique furniture restoration. Without a studio or assistant, Duffy turned to his son Chris for a venue to shoot David Bowie, the only person who could persuade him to get back behind the lens.
Bowie asked costumer Natasha Korniloff to make him ‘The most beautiful clown in the circus.’ She described David as ‘Always a lot of fun to work with.’ David's New Romantic/Commedia dell'arte variant outfit was a throwback to his earliest costume experience, starring in Lindsay Kemp's Pierrot In Turquoise - a costume also designed by the late Natasha Kornilof.
Bowie began to pose as the perfect pierrot, throughout the session distressing his look until he was reduced to a disheveled, smeared, smoking clown. This was the final image chosen for the basis of Edward Bell's painting, rather than the pristine pierrot that featured in the Ashes to Ashes video.
