Chris Duffy of the Duffy Archive on his father's legacy; And that iconic Aladdin Sane cover

Chris Duffy, custodian of the Duffy Archive, tells the story of his father Brian Duffy—the photographer who helped redefine British photography and created David Bowie’s iconic Aladdin Sane image.

Alongside David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy became one of the photographers whose work helped define the visual language of the 1960s. His career encompassed fashion, portraiture, advertising and film, but his collaborations with David Bowie produced some of his most enduring images.

Chris explains how his father walked away from photography and burned part of his archive, why the surviving material was almost forgotten and how father and son eventually worked together to preserve and reassess it.

At the centre of the interview is the 1973 Aladdin Sane session. Chris reveals how Bowie, Duffy and make-up artist Pierre La Roche developed the lightning-flash image, how a National Panasonic rice cooker contributed an unexpected visual reference and why the resulting photograph continues to speak to successive generations.

Chris also discusses Brian Duffy’s five photographic sessions with Bowie, meeting Bowie at Trident Studios, the worldwide impact of the V&A’s David Bowie Is exhibition and the responsibility of protecting his father’s creative legacy.

Explore the Duffy Archive:
https://www.duffyarchive.com

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction
01:20 Who was Brian Duffy?
02:00 Redefining the visual language of the 1960s
04:10 From fashion design to photography
05:00 Joining Vogue and expanding into portraiture and advertising
06:30 Film work and Oh! What a Lovely War
08:00 Why Duffy believed in burning his bridges
09:20 The destruction of part of his photographic archive
10:35 Leaving photography for furniture restoration
12:00 Pulmonary fibrosis and the decision to revisit his work
13:45 Chris Duffy’s own career as a photographer
15:00 Reconstructing and curating the archive
17:45 Searching magazine archives for missing Duffy photographs
19:00 What makes a Brian Duffy photograph recognisable?
20:00 Tony Defries, David Bowie and Duffy
22:00 The chemistry behind five Bowie sessions
24:00 Elvis Presley, TCB and the lightning-flash idea
25:00 Pierre La Roche and the Aladdin Sane make-up
25:50 The rice cooker that helped inspire the flash
28:00 Bowie and Duffy challenging one another
29:00 Why the Aladdin Sane image remains so powerful
31:20 Bowie’s transformations through the five sessions
33:00 Chris finding his own identity through the archive
35:00 David Bowie Is and Duffy’s renewed recognition
37:20 Choosing and controlling the defining images
40:00 Chris’s first encounter with David Bowie
41:35 Arriving at Trident Studios
42:00 Bowie, Mick Ronson and Ken Scott at work
44:00 Photographing Scary Monsters
45:15 Future plans for the Duffy Archive
47:00 Duffy Bowie: Five Sessions
48:20 Final thoughts

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Photography credits:
Chris Duffy photograph: Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive
David Bowie photograph: Photo Duffy © Duffy Archive & The David Bowie Archive™

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