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>> Hi everybody, it's Dominique from The Rest is History.
So we are in the middle of an exclusive mini series for our Rest is History Club members about photography and the way it is being interwoven with the story of history. And in today's episode with a great photographer Chris Floyd, we are looking in particular our music. So we'll be talking about the great bluesman Robert Johnson,
who sold his sold the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. We'll be looking at the great titans of jazz, assembling and Harlem in the 1950s for a group portrait. We were talking about the career of David Bowie, and we are talking about an iconic image of Grace Jones from the 1980s.
“Now if you don't want to miss out on this, all you need to do is to go to the Rest is History.com to sign up.”
And not only will you get this exclusive mini series, but you'll get a host of truly unbelievable benefits. So we hope to see you at the rest is history.com.
And in the meantime, here's a little clip of the episode.
[ Music ] So our third image that Chris has chosen, and Chris, this is some of the few photographs yourself. But you didn't choose your own picture of him, and that's David Bowie. Just before we talk about the picture,
David Bowie, was it fun? >> Stressful, because again, you're with someone who's worked with the very best, and also not only with the very best, but also done it a lot. >> Right. >> And has probably limited patience for any. >> Perfect thing around. >> But it was good. He was surgically funny about other famous people.
>> Oh, that's all he's doing. >> And their foibles. >> Right. >> Yeah.
“There's anybody he particularly disliked.”
Well, I wouldn't say disliked, but he made a very pointed and amazing comment about Brian Ferry.
>> Well, okay, another 70s glamour kind of product. So this is a picture, it was an album cover. It's Aladdin's scene as Aladdin's scene. And it's by Taken by a great 60s photographer, actually. Brian Duffy, one of the kind of, one of the all-frontary people of kind of 60s photography.
>> Yes, there was Duffy, Terence Donovan and David Bowie. >> And they were given, they were known as the black trinity. >> Right. >> All from the East End, all classic 60s working class boys who did good. >> You know, high end photographers had been involved with album covers since the Beatles, I guess. >> Yeah. >> The mid-60s, 64, 65.
And Brian Duffy being invited to come in and do David Bowie. I mean, it's the sign of how successful David Bowie is at this point. Because what year are we in? We're in 73. So Bowie's at his peak? No, he's not at his peak, actually. So there's a great story about this.
So Bowie's manager, it was called Tony de Fries. Operated on the theory that if he made the record company spend a lot of money, then they would be committed because they would have spent so much money on a project. They would have to put the effort in to make their money back. This album cover in particular, he said he went to Duffy and said,
"We've got to make this album cover as expensive as we possibly can." And Duffy said, "Well, no problem." >> He's delighted by that. >> So he hired one of the best make-up artists in the world. The printing of the image was done using a code-up process called die transfer printing,
which was the most expensive process by which you could print an image in those days. >> So it's going to ask about this because there's a technical story behind this picture.
“So for people who can't see it, I mean, you should have a look that you can Google it,”
or you can watch the episode on the web site or whatever. So the image is a kind of white and pale David Bowie shot from kind of shoulders upwards. He's got this kind of shock of red hair, and he's got this zigzag pattern on his face, the kind of red and blue zigzag. And the technical skill that was brought to this.
So Duffy had just done the Purelli calendar, is that right? >> Yeah. >> He's using the same techniques that he had used on the Purelli calendar. So it's die transfer, so you make a plate, a printing plate for each color in the red, green and blue.
You make a separate plate for each kind of extremely expensive. And it was done in Switzerland, which made it. Triply expensive, having to go to Switzerland. >> Yeah. >> So there's a documentary about him, actually, called the Man who shot the 60s.
He quoted Tony Davoris wanted to make the most expensive cover. He could possibly get a record company to pay for. If it cost 50 quid, then they could say so what? If it cost 5,000 pounds, the record company, when I'm having to pay attention, the record company couldn't have come to a better con artist than my good self.
>> Okay, good line. So he does this extreme, inexpensive process. It's all part of Bowies. I mean, Bowie's famous isn't he for pioneering the idea that a rock star, or pop star has a kind of, has a maliable image that is constantly changing
between each incarnation, he will assume different personalities.
Zeee started us or Aladdin's saying, or the Finn White Jew or whatever.
And this is all part of the image making that goes hand in hand.
It's actually very different from the Robert Johnson pictures. He is unconscious. >> Yeah. >> Of his image. He's not thinking about his image because he's not conscious of himself as a musical celebrity.
Of course, he's just a jobbing musician. >> Well, Johnson's in a pre-image era, isn't he? >> I'm a mass media era, really. People are not selling music based on an image in the way that they were by the time we get to Bowie here. >> So even the jazz musicians in a great day at Harlem.
There was an innocence I suppose to that image.
“They're all quite, they're all very smartly dressed aren't they?”
They're sharp, they're sharply dressed.
But there's no sense I would say of it being a contrivens. Whereas the Bowie image is pure contrivens. >> Yeah, they've all thought about what they're wearing. >> Yeah. >> People put effort and consideration to it because it was important to them to look good.
But they've all done it in their own individual personal way. With Bowie, you have elevation of the individual to superstars status. Rather than simple old fashioned star status. He's sort of going, it's superstars. You know, the idea that he's from another planet and he's an alien and all of that stuff.
You know, there's a great interesting background to the lightning flash on his face. >> Yeah.
>> So he got that from Elvis.
“You know, the Memphis Mafia, Elvis's buddies.”
Sort of possey. >> Yeah. >> So they were the Memphis Mafia and he had this logo design for them, which was a lightning flash. And the letters TCB, which stood for taking care of business. But Elvis actually stole that from the Templar Christian Brotherhood.
TCV. He took the TCV of the Templar Christian Brotherhood, changed it to taking care of business. stole their lightning flash and made it his own thing. And then Bowie stole the lightning flash from Elvis. >> Wow.
>> So this lineage of all comes from the Templar Christian Brotherhood. >> Wow. Actually, it's Bowie you could argue his fascination with image. Leeds and dance from dark paths, doesn't it? >> Yeah.
>> The point at which he's giving interviews saying, "Oh Hitler was a rock star." >> Yeah. >> All of this kind of thing. Well, later on in his career, he said, "Oh, yeah. I was carrying too far the idea of playing a part."
>> Yeah. >> The best pose. >> Yeah. >> And as a photographer yourself. So here, when you're, I mean, obviously this is all contrivens, this picture.
>> Yeah. >> When someone says to you, "Will you go on photograph?" I don't know, Paul McCarrney or Bill Gates or however. How much are you as a photographer, colluding in the creation of a infected image?
Or how much are you trying to instead get to the truth? >> I mean, that's just two totally different things. Here they're creating, it's an album cover. That's what they're doing. They're creating an image.
>> Yeah. >> A two-dimensional image for an album cover. The things you're talking about with the things I've, those things. I'm doing a portrait for an interview in a magazine or something like that. >> Yeah.
>> And really you're trying to capture some element of them that is compelling on the page. Not necessarily any truth, but just an image that makes people stop and read their headline. [ Music ] >> Thank you so much for listening to that.
“So if you want to hear the rest of that episode, which is of course all about music,”
then just head to therestishistory.com to join the club and to get all the other benefits. So please do join us at Therestis History Club. We would love to have you with us. And on that bomb shell, bye-bye. [ Music ]
