Book The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973 - Mick Rock

An exceptional tribute by David Bowie's official photographer and artistic partner, Mick Rock, imagined in 2015 with Bowie's blessing.

In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. It introduces Ziggy Stardust, Bowie's alter ego, dressed in rhinestones and sequins, eyes rimmed with mascara, a strange character of ambiguous sexuality, who shatters all boundaries between man and woman, straight and gay, fact and fiction, to create one of the most astonishing and sparkling musical phenomena of the 1970s. The Ziggy album and tour propelled Bowie from gentle London musician to one of the world's biggest stars.

One of the main passengers on Travel into the glam stratosphere was a photographer friend, also from London: Mick Rock. Both artistically and in friendship, Rock and Bowie were closely linked. Mick immersed himself in Bowie's inner circle and was his official photographer and director from 1972 to 1973.

This book, almost half of which is made up of never-before-published images, brings together his spectacular stage photos and iconic shots, as well as his intimate backstage portraits. Opening with a 3D cover revealing several portraits, the book pays tribute to Bowie's spirit of constant experimentation and reinvention, and sheds new light on his career and its many facets. At once distant and close, playful and serious, sincere and artificial, this tribute brims with the energy and audacity of the artist, celebrating a flamboyant and inspiring artist whose creative power will never be forgotten.