You have taken some incredible shots of David when he was filming The Man Who Fell to Earth, you were originally going to be his body double weren’t you? What are your memories from the film shoot? It’s my favourite Bowie film of all time. What’s yours?

We had a little party on the Trans-Siberian Express. We had a few drinks (copious) with some tourists and young Russian soldiers who said they were in the construction unit. David came off second-best on this occasion and I managed to snap the aftermath!” I really liked all the spiders. I think they realised that Hutch and I plus the two brass/woodwind guys were just there to bulk up the sound, even where we were positioned, at the side of the stage, confirmed that it was, very much, David and The Spiders show!All this dark energy would be absorbed into Bowie’s next creation The Thin White Duke: the isolated, cold-blooded European alien who summoned a pre-pop atmosphere of neo-romanticism and a search for the arcane created a whirlpool of vitality on Station to Station. The exhibition "David Bowie in the Soviet Union" at the Wende Museum in Culver City, USA runs through October 22, 2023. Sometimes you say: ‘Oh, I wish I would have taken more pictures’. But I think it could have been irritating, and the attitude of the pictures would have changed,” he said. “It would have become a nuisance, rather than a sporadic thing where sometimes I had the camera, and sometimes I didn’t.” Masayoshi Sukita acquired a Nikkormat camera for me in April ’73, just after David and I arrived in Tokyo (by ship) for a tour. The first picture I took of David was an outside shot beside a carriage on The TransSiberian Express, which is one of the images I’ve included in this selection.

Kevin Cummins: “Always strive for the best. I told Bowie years later that he was responsible for the career I’d chosen. He looked mortified and replied, ‘Oh no. I get blamed for a lot. I don’t want to be responsible for this too.’– then laughed…” Was it traveling with David which prompted you to document what was happening for posterity or were you always interested in photography? What are your memories of The 1980 Floor Show? It’s great to see it’s recently been uploaded to YouTube in superior quality. It's kind of how it ended up happening. I wanted a camera because I loved the idea of a camera. I loved the idea of a camera like you might like the idea of a gun, the mechanics of it and the weight of it ... so to have a proper camera, as opposed to an Instamatic — Instamatics have got their place, by the way, as do Polaroids — but to have a serious camera with dials that you didn't know what they did. I probably never learned my way around it, but there's something really sexy about a camera - a real camera, a good camera. So I wanted that. I don't know how much was wanting that and wanting to use it, and not the subject as such. So, you know, David wasn't just in the way [Laughs] ... but mostly it was the camera, it was having a camera and using a camera, which I thought was really sexy. The beautiful thing about the photos in this book is their intimacy. These aren't publicity pictures; they're pictures taken by a friend. I love the one of Bowie asleep in the train car. Were you trying to get shots like that or is that just kind of how it happened?It's interesting because you captured some beautiful shots during eras in which Bowie maybe wasn't as happy or fulfilled in his life or career — the period when he was filming 1976's The Man Who Fell to Earth, for example.

He was extremely generous. He was extremely polite. That's the way we were brought up in Bromley, where we all came from. Their time together spanned world tours and the five albums he released, from Aladdin Sane in 1973 to Station to Station in 1976, as Bowie became an international star and one of the most recognisable people on the planet. Carr, Roy; Murray, Charles Shaar (1981). David Bowie: an illustrated record. New York: Avon. ISBN 0380779668. I sometimes do ‘not for profit’ cultural shows. The Brighton Museum was one, I did another in St Petersburg and this in Los Angeles. I’ll probably do more, hopefully in the UK. I was just hanging out with Ava (Cherry) and David, and it just came into my stupid head. Oddly, the same name was used by a music journalist and a character in an American teen movie called Sky High.

A special soundtrack for the exhibition

The non-profit Los Angeles radio station dublab has created a playlist especially for the exhibition. It features songs from the time of that trip, as well as Bowie's once and future collaborators, including Mott the Hoople, Lou Reed, Brian Eno and Queen. To have a collection of images, of my friend of 60 years, documenting that era and to share them is, for me, a great joy.” Cocaine, a fascination with Nazi Germany, his failing marriage and an obsession with occult practice and writings had captured Bowie’s interest but his creative powers and aesthetic were arguably at their peak. Bowie Poses With a Large Barking Dog for Publicity Shots for His 1974 Album ‘Diamond Dogs’ in London Our dress sense was considered to be quite effeminate because he was flamboyant. We were the first generation to be free, and have extra money to spend on ourselves, and to buy clothes, and have foreign holidays and have suits made and stuff like this. So it was quite a liberating situation. But then we were the first generation who weren't bossed around by society.”

Markus Klinko: “I was working with Iman in 2001. I had just photographed her for the cover of her forthcoming coffee table book, I Am Iman, and we had scheduled an editing meeting. To my great surprise, she was accompanied by David. He was every bit as charismatic as one would expect. About half an hour into the editing session, David turned around and asked me if I would be interested in shooting the cover of his next album! I couldn’t have been more thrilled.” James Smith, Publisher of ACC Art Books, said: “This unique story, told with humour and incredible insight, details the author’s adventures on-and-off the road with David Bowie – his childhood friend. We’re incredibly proud to be publishing Geoff’s book and know fans, old and new, will be as enthralled with his book as we all are.” David Bowie in the Soviet Union is generously supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. I thought it was a good one. I thought it was, 'Oh, that's got the big commercial possibilities.' And the timing was right because it was around the time of the film 2001[ A Space Odyssey], which was a huge film worldwide. Justin de Villeneuve: “Twiggy and I flew to Paris where David was recording his new album, ‘Pin Ups,’ and I booked a studio to take the portrait. When T & B sat in front of me, I realised we had a problem. Twiggy and myself had just returned from the Bahamas and she had a dark tan. David was as white as a ghost. They looked weird together. The problem was resolved when the make-up artist Pierre LaRoche and myself decided to draw masks on their faces of the same colours. It was only when I looked through the lens viewfinder that I noticed Bowie’s eyes were different. All the times I’d met him before and I had never noticed!Yeah. When you're used to bumming it for most of your life, and you rebound, it's not a big thing, you know? It's gonna be all right in the end.OK, so the management has got hold of his money, but the record company was helping him out a bit ... but he'd had aNo. 1 in America at that point ["Fame" from 1975's Young Americans]. He suddenly didn't have any money and we were in Los Angeles, and New York as well. But I think you know if you've had aNo.1, you're going to be all right. I don’t have one image which is favourite. The book cover is definitely one of my favourites as he looks so on top of his game and confident. In 1995, I was able to meet David Bowie during his ‘Outside’ tour with Nine Inch Nails and presented him with a framed copy of my favourite image of him. About three weeks later, I received an envelope from Switzerland in the mail. I didn’t know anyone in Switzerland. It was a handwritten letter from Bowie, on his embossed stationery, thanking me for my gift of the photograph. He asked that I please excuse his tardiness in sending thanks. A handwritten note. Politeness. What a perfect British gentleman! It only made me love him more.” They had never heard his music and he did an impromptu little show on the boat going to Siberia from Japan, which went down very well. And we had one night where I think he got the guitar out, and we sang to some tourists and a few young Russian soldiers, and drank too much.”