A photograph from the photo session for David Bowie’s 1973 album Aladdin Sane has been gifted to the V&A as it announced record visitor figures for its world-touring David Bowie is exhibition.
The V&A said on Wednesday that the archive of the late photographer Brian Duffy had donated a print of a colour transparency image, from the photo session that led to one of the world’s most recognisable album covers.
Duffy was one of the “terrible trio”, or “Black Trinity”, of photographers who helped capture the vibrancy of London in the swinging sixties and beyond. With fellow East Enders David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Duffy brought new ideas and a new energy to celebrity photography.
The Aladdin Sane image, an orange haired Bowie with a red and blue painted lightning flash painted on his face, is one of Duffy’s most famous.