Photo Book Reviews

From the late 1960s to today, David Bowie’s spark of creative genius has burned white hot, allowing him to build an impressive career and a highly unique body of work. He has the unmatched ability to successfully harness the best trends in music, art, photography and fashion and blend them together to form unique and ever changing performance personas with their own musical style and look. Each one of his characters seems to be an entirely different person offering an eager audience new musical and visual experiences. Most of us are familiar with albums like, The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars, Heroes, Diamond Dogs and Young Americans. Author Paolo Hewitt offers the reader a unique look at Bowie's albums and the photography behind them in his book, Bowie: Album by Album. Hewitt covers each of the famous 27 studio albums in great detail with commentaries and quotes from the musicians and engineers who worked on these projects. Bowie himself also offers his own in depth insight. Featuring a collection of full color images (some of which are presented here in print for the very first time) and a chronology of each album, this is an essential guide to Bowie’s work and a must have item for his legion of dedicated fans both old and new. Bowie: Album By Album; by Paolo Hewitt, Introduction by Robert Elms; Insight Editions, $45; (ISBN: 978-1-60887-260-2) For more information about Bowie: Album by Album, visit the publisher's website: http://www.insighteditions.com/