"David Bowie, Writer's Block (B&W)", 2001
Ciao Addictees,
Before the year turns, we wanted to share what’s coming next.
On 1st January 2026, Addicted will open a new virtual exhibition:
Markus Klinko: Bowie, The Heavens
The exhibition marks ten years since the passing of David Bowie (10th January 2016) - not by returning to mythology or tribute, but by revisiting a moment defined by clarity, restraint, and control.
If it’s easy to forget that celebrities are ordinary people, photographer Markus Klinko has never been interested in reminding us of that.
“I love fantasy,” Markus once said. “I’m not interested in reality. I try to block it out.”
That instinct - to move away from the everyday toward something heightened - sits at the core of his work. Markus doesn’t photograph people as they are. He photographs them as they choose to be seen. Which is why artists, musicians, actors, and models trust him with images they can’t afford to get wrong.
Before photography, Markus understood that world from the inside. A classical concert harpist performing with symphony orchestras around the globe, he knew what it meant to be watched, elevated, and judged - and the pressure that comes with it. When a hand injury ended that career, he didn’t step away from performance. He changed roles.
The turning point came in 2001, through Iman.
Iman had commissioned Markus to photograph the cover of her book I AM IMAN. During an editing session at Markus’s New York studio - just days before 9/11 - David Bowie arrived unexpectedly to help select images. Partway through the session, Bowie made a simple offer: Markus should shoot the cover of his upcoming album, Heathen.
"Heathen", David Bowie, 23rd Studio Album, Released 2002
The events of 9/11 delayed the shoot, but Bowie stayed true to his word. On 10th October 2001, Markus spent eight hours in his New York studio with Bowie, creating the photographs that sit at the heart of this exhibition.
Bowie arrived with a clear idea. He wanted to be photographed as a blind man - not theatrically, but symbolically. A figure who had lost belief: not just religious belief, but belief in systems, politics, inherited truths. Bowie later described Heathen as a meditation on what he called “the unilluminated mind” - a vision of 21st-century humanity existing almost entirely on a material plane.
The imagery was meticulously planned, drawing on references including Man Ray, and even a self-portrait Bowie had taken privately before the session. Once the album cover image was secured, Bowie gave Markus something rare… Time.
What followed was not spectacle, but restraint. Not excess, but control. The resulting photographs - later released as the Bowie Unseen series - are among the most pared-back in Markus Klinko’s career. Quiet. Unadorned. Held.
The following year, Markus was asked to photograph Bowie again for GQ’s Man of the Year issue - placing him unflinching among a pack of wolves. Different energy. Same authority.
"David Bowie, The Protector (B&W)", 2002
Together, these works form the spine of Markus Klinko: Bowie, The Heavens - a virtual exhibition that invites observation, distance, and reflection.
The exhibition will be live from 1st January to 31 March 2026.
We’ll share the access details closer to launch. For now, consider this an advance invitation - a moment to pause before the year begins, and a reminder that not everything needs to announce itself to be felt.
Blair & Ele xoxo