David Bowie OE45

About Gavin Evans

“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring,” David Bowie once said. There are countless portraits of the musician, but the 1995 photo shoot for The Session wrote a piece of popular history. That is… Read more

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Work Info

In his London studio in 1995, Gavin Evans created a piece of art history. He captured fascinating photographs of David Bowie that soon became known worldwide as "The Session". Bowie in black and white, full of lust for life and charisma, an example of portrait photography in its utmost form. Evans established a personal relationship with the rock star at that time. Bowie himself claimed them to be his favorite portraits.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring,” David Bowie once said. There are countless portraits of the musician, but the 1995 photo shoot for The Session wrote a piece of popular history. That is when Bowie came into contact with British photographer Gavin Evans, who was on assignment for Time Out Magazine in London. That forty-minute photo shoot produced legendary portraits of Bowie that are now among the most famous pictures of the musician. From playful to daydreaming to lost in thought, Bowie revealed many aspects of his personality under Evans' direction. The iconic photographs have already appeared in the auction catalogs of Sotheby’s and on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Our LUMAS piece combines three photographs from The Session into one breathtaking lenticular that uses a series of tiny vertical lenses to create a spectacular effect. Depending on where viewers are standing, they will see one of three distinct Bowie poses. This dazzling work of art underlines Gavin Evans’ philosophy, who is of the opinion that you cannot portray a person with a single flawless photograph. “Both personalities reside within the frame,” he says, emphasising that every image is also a manifestation of the photographer. Over the course of a career spanning decades, Evans has photographed countless celebrities, including Ai Wei Wei, Juliette Binoche, Gary Oldman, Daniel Craig, Björk and Nick Cave. “I create man in my own image,” he reflects on his creative process.

VITA

Gavin Evans was born in 1964 in Sunderland, England. He has exhibited his photographs in renowned museums including MoMA and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2015, Evans created the campaign for the Edinburgh International Festival. He has worked for Vogue, The New York Times, and The Guardian. He now lives and works in Berlin.