Holding bowie
A personal project, dedicated to my father and to David Bowie.
Holding Bowie brings together image, memory and music in a book created ten years after David Bowie’s passing. At its heart is a single portrait of Bowie that travels around the world, appearing in the hands of people who knew him, worked with him, or have a personal story to tell.
Ten people, ten stories, one recurring image - each encounter adding a new chapter to the journey.
The book is dedicated to my father, whose passing in January 2025 became the deeply personal catalyst for the project.
A tribute in image and sound
Holding Bowie is a unique project in which art, music and personal memories come together.
Created ten years after David Bowie’s passing, the book brings together ten personal stories from people who knew Bowie, worked with him, or whose lives became closely connected with his.
Among the contributors are Bowie’s musical director and rhythm guitarist Carlos Alomar, bassist Carmine Rojas, fashion designer Keanan Duffty, sound engineer Eduard Meyer, performance artist Joey Arias, and video editor Nigel Marshall (Nacho Videos).
Their stories are complemented by personal quotes from others connected to Bowie, including Scheveningen-born performer Romy Haag.
Throughout the book, the same Bowie portrait appears again and again in the hands of different people and in different places around the world. One portrait, travelling from person to person, connecting different lives, memories and stories.
Ten stories, ten years after David’s passing.
Become part of the story
Holding Bowie will be published by the end of November 2026 as a luxury English-language hardcover edition, limited to just 250 copies.
The first 100 copies will be individually numbered and signed. These will form the special signed and numbered edition of Holding Bowie, while the remaining 150 copies will be available as the regular edition of the same luxury hardcover book.
Official pre-orders have not yet opened, but I am already collecting expressions of interest. If you would like to be among the first to receive Holding Bowie - particularly one of the first 100 signed and numbered copies — you are warmly invited to register your interest.
In the meantime, you can follow the remarkable journey behind Holding Bowie through my Journal, where I share stories, encounters, unexpected discoveries and the creative process behind the project.
A digital edition in both English and Dutch is also being considered, and a paperback edition may follow at a later stage. The luxury English hardcover, however, will remain strictly limited to 250 copies.
There is no obligation - registering your interest simply means I will contact you as soon as the book becomes available for pre-order.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
As part of Holding Bowie, I wanted to explore how the central portrait could move beyond the pages of the book and take on a physical form.
One of the objects that grew out of this idea is the Holding Bowie Portrait Ring: a wearable miniature of the Bowie portrait that runs as a visual thread throughout the project.
The ring is produced in an edition of just ten, marking the ten years since David Bowie’s passing. Each ring is individually numbered and engraved with “David Bowie (1947–2016)”, and comes with its own certificate of authenticity.
Rather than being conceived simply as merchandise, the ring is an extension of the artwork itself -transforming the recurring portrait from an image that can be held into one that can actually be worn.
A portrait to hold. A portrait to wear.
The Holding Bowie Portrait Ring is available separately in a strictly limited edition of ten. More information can be found in the Bowie webshop.