David Bowie. "The Rise of David Bowie. 1972-1973" XL.

DAVID BOWIE.
"The Rise of David Bowie. 1972-1973" XL.
By Mick Rock.
Issue 202.
Limited edition of 240 copies.
Numbered.
Publisher Taschen.
New, unopened.

Tribute to David Bowie by his official photographer, Mick Rock. Compiled in 2015 with Bowie's permission, this collection reviews with onstage snapshots, backstage portraits or press clippings, the musical, theatrical and sexual revolution that was the avant-garde Ziggy Stardust world tour of 1972 and 1973. An ode to an exceptional artist.

In 1972, David Bowie released his revolutionary album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it landed Bowie's alter ego: a glitter-clad, sexually ambiguous character who broke down the boundaries between masculine and feminine, heterosexual and homosexual, reality and fiction in a shifting, sparkling phenomenon of 1970s self-expression. Together, Ziggy, the album, and Ziggy, the stage show, propelled this soft-spoken Londoner into one of the world's biggest stars. A key passenger on this glamorous journey into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock forged artistic and personal ties with Bowie, immersed himself in the singer's inner circle and, between 1972 and 1973, worked as the singer's photographer and videographer.

This collection, with nearly 50 percent previously unpublished images, brings together spectacular stage shots, iconic photo shoots, as well as intimate behind-the-scenes portraits. Featuring a lenticular cover of different portraits, it celebrates Bowie's fearless experimentation and reinvention, while offering privileged access to the many facets of his personality and fame. Through the distant and the accessible, the playful and the serious, the candid and the contrived, the result is a passionate tribute to a brilliant and inspiring artist whose creative vision will never be forgotten.