A rarely seen photograph of the elusive Bowie in its natural environment.
“This Bowie picture for the cover of “Q” was, when it arrived with us, just a rather nice contemporary portrait. We needed somehow to link it into the glories of David’s past. We had the idea of the cover of Aladdin Sane, and after much telephoning, discovered that a computer enhancement company called Jones Bloom had the very frontier technology we needed to convincingly paint David’s skin. They did a fantastic job. We didn’t receive a single letter saying, ‘That isn’t the real Aladdin Sane flash.’ Indeed, dozens of people asked, ‘How the hell did you get him to agree to do that?’ I got a message back from Bowie himself saying that it was ‘cheeky’.”
— Danny Kelly, editor (1995)
