Six of the photographers behind some of David Bowie’s most iconic imagery will come together at Lightroom in King’s Cross on Tuesday 26th May for a one-off event, Bowie Nights: Behind the Lens, sharing unheard stories from behind the camera.
Presented by journalist and author Miranda Sawyer, the evening will feature Geoff MacCormack, Kevin Cummins, Richard Young, Denis O’Regan, Tony McGee and Chris Duffy on stage. Each photographer will present selected portraits that best capture their personal vision of Bowie, offering rare insight into his creative world and the making of his most legendary looks. The photographs will be displayed on Lightroom’s state-of-the-art, four-storey projection walls, giving the images a scale they have never been shown at before.
The stories on offer span Bowie’s most defining eras. Richard Young captured the Thin White Duke period, including the famous 1976 Victoria Station arrival. Kevin Cummins began documenting Bowie on the 1973 Ziggy Stardust tour and later compiled decades of collaboration in the book David Bowie: Mixing Memory & Desire. Geoff MacCormack, a lifelong friend of Bowie’s, travelled with him from 1973 to 1976 photographing him across multiple countries.
Denis O’Regan served as Bowie’s official tour photographer, most notably during the 1983 Serious Moonlight tour, while Tony McGee worked with Bowie for over 30 years, beginning with the Serious Moonlight publicity shoot that same year. Completing the line-up is Chris Duffy, son of the late Brian Duffy, whose Aladdin Sane session photograph remains one of the most reproduced images in music history. Brian Duffy’s work features prominently in the David Bowie archive acquired by the V&A, which holds over 70,000 photographs taken by some of the 20th century’s leading photographers. Chris Duffy now preserves that photographic legacy and has himself photographed Bowie, including iconic sessions for Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Scary Monsters.
Producer David Sabel said: “These photographers knew David Bowie at his most creative, and his most vulnerable, helping conjure the iconic looks of one of music’s great shapeshifters. This event will tell the stories of what it was like behind the scenes as the legends of the likes of Aladdin Sane and The Thin White Duke were born.”
Bowie Nights: Behind the Lens is part of Lightroom’s wider Bowie Nights season, which runs from May to September 2026 and features a cross-disciplinary programme of events celebrating Bowie’s life and work. The season includes contributions from major artists influenced by Bowie, from Anna Calvi to Jonathan Barnbrook to Adam Buxton. Audiences can sign up to Lightroom’s mailing list for further details and first access to tickets.
The season coincides with the acclaimed immersive production David Bowie: You’re Not Alone, which is showing daily at Lightroom. Written and directed by 59 Studio’s Mark Grimmer (Creative Director for the V&A’s David Bowie Is exhibition) and Tom Wexler, the show draws on thousands of hours of footage from the David Bowie Archive in New York, spanning Space Oddity through Diamond Dogs and Let’s Dance to ★. The audio has been newly configured by multi-Olivier and Tony award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry (Harry Potter & The Cursed Child, David Bowie Is) to utilise Lightroom’s specialist spatial audio system. The production is fully authorised by the David Bowie Estate.
Interest in Bowie’s legacy has never been higher. The Heritage of London Trust announced earlier this year that Bowie’s childhood home in Bromley is to be restored and opened to the public, with the project scheduled for completion in late 2027, providing further context for a man whose early life inspired some of rock music’s most enduring imagery.
Tickets for Bowie Nights: Behind the Lens are available here. Tickets for David Bowie: You’re Not Alone are priced from £25 for adults and £15 for students and concessions, and are on sale now until 10 October at lightroom.uk. Lightroom is located at 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, King’s Cross, London, N1C 4DY.
Image credits: Duffy at Duffy Archive, Denis O’Regan
In this article: Miranda Sawyer, David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Aladdin Sane, The Thin White Duke, Serious Moonlight Tour, Victoria and Albert Museum, David Bowie Is, David Bowie Centre, Anna Calvi, King’s Cross St Pancras tube station, Lewis Cubitt Square, London Borough of Bromley, Space Oddity, Diamond Dogs, Let’s Dance, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Station to Station. Generated by Wikidata Schema Link Builder.
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