MADONNA BY GEORGE DUBOSE

"I was contacted by John Phillips, the bouncer at Hurrah's, who was sidelining as a radio promotions man and shopping Madonna's first demo to radio stations in NYC. He put me together with Camille of Empire Management, Madonna's manager. Camille asked me to go to Uncle Sam's Blues, a club in Roslyn, Long Island, and photograph just the singer, who was fronting a band called The Breakfast Club. Onstage at US Blues I found this sexy young woman, wearing barely-concealing costumes of chamois skin and foxtails. She was oozing sexuality, but seemed shy or unsure of herself. Her manager heard me talking to her like that and threw me out of the dressing room. Nevertheless, she put on quite a performance and I went back and shot the second set. I returned to Manhattan and never heard from the manager and never got the payment we had agreed on. Madonna never got the pictures or even saw the whole session...How about that?"

George DuBose shot the photo that would later become the cover for the B-52’s 1979 self-titled debut album. He captured Madonna during her first gig, created the cover art for the last nine Ramones albums and would go on to work with Tom Waits, REM, The Go-Go’s, Melissa Etheridge and Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

He captured icons in their infancy. DuBose was there, on the front lines, photographing artists who would influence decades of sound and style. His photographs evidence not only the beginning’s of such quintessential bands, but also the photographer who was there, unknowingly making legends of them both.

Now, House of Roulx is contributing in our own way by sharing DuBose’s works with both existing fans and an entirely new generation, so that they will also come to know the man who captured and help break the people who made music what it is today.