“And somewhere in my soul there’s always rock and roll”
– Joe Strummer
Steve Rapport – (Mostly) Rock ‘n’ Roll
Opening Reception: Friday, April 1, 6 – 9 PM
Exhibit: April 1 – 30, 2022
Curated by: Nicola Bosco-Alvarez
Steve Rapport documented a generation of the thrilling music scene in London and the U.S. whilst also fighting for social and racial justice.
Steve left the UK and came to the San Francisco Bay Area in June 1992. His 80’s photo archives remained in a friend’s garage in Oxfordshire, England until the end of 2017, when photos and photographer were finally reunited.
Every picture tells a story, and Steve is more than happy to share the story behind your favorite photo… if he can remember it!
Photography featuring:
The Clash, U2, Cyndi Lauper, Grace Jones, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Prince, Kate Bush, Freddy Mercury, Annie Lennox, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Bow Wow Wow and so, so much more!
For more information about Steve Rapport and his work including several intriguing stories like the one below visit mostlyrocknroll.com
Every picture tells a story, here is Steve Rapport’s story about photographing David Bowie.
The second vinyl album I ever bought, in 1972, was The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars*. It turned me into a lifelong David Bowie fan. Imagine how eager I was in early 1985 when I heard that he and his manager, Coco Schwab, were looking for a photographer they hadn’t worked with before to shoot extensive artwork for the Loving the Alien single from the Tonight album.
After my publicist friend Versa Manos and several other people were kind enough to recommend me, I got word that David and Coco wanted to look at my portfolio.
A couple of long slow weeks later, a call from the RCA press office gave me the date and time to show up at Meantime Studios in Greenwich, where Bowie was going to be shooting the video for the song. I learned that there would be a standard single sleeve, a gatefold single sleeve, a 12-inch single sleeve, a 12-inch gatefold with a poster, a picture disc, a shaped picture disc – the works!
I tried not to freak out, at least not outwardly, but it was the biggest job of my career at that point. At any point. So when I drove across London from my home in Stockwell on a Monday morning in March, I was much more nervous than normal prior to a job.
I had no idea what to expect when I walked into the dark, cavernous warehouse space with my camera bag over my shoulder. I started to walk diagonally across the floor to where I could see lights and cameras set up. And that’s when David Bowie emerged from the shadows, perfectly dressed and coiffed, walking towards me and proffering his right hand, looking me in the eye and saying, memorably, in that unmistakable Brixton voice, “Hello, I’m David. You must be Steve.”
That was… not normal. Ordinarily, everything was arranged through a press office or other intermediaries, so the musicians often didn’t know who I was when I met them for the first time. For this shoot, though, there weren’t any intermediaries. David had chosen everything on that set, including me. So for him to step forward and hold out his hand to shake mine instead of waiting for me to approach him, for him to know my name – it meant the world to me ⬛️
* the first one was Every Picture Tells A Story
