(You can click twice on the photos to fully expand them. Then click the left arrow (back page) to get back.)

The following three pictures of David Bowie were released by Bowie's music organization on Jan. 8, 2016, two days before Bowie passed away on Jan. 10, 2016.

They were all taken by Bowie's longtime photographer, Jimmy King.

The three pictures, though initially thought to be the last photos taken of Bowie, were later found to had been taken four months before, in September of 2015, while Bowie was filming the "Blackstar" video for his last album, also entitledBlackstar.

As you will see, they were taken near a film studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

David Bowie by Jimmy King - Photo 1

David Bowie by Jimmy King - Photo 2

David Bowie by Jimmy King - Photo 3

Ultimately PopSpots tracked down the location of the photos to a complex of video soundstages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where Bowie had filmed the video for "Blackstar."

The address of the complex, which also contains a large artist's studio, and a rooftop nature-walk is 520 Kingsland Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

This is the entranceway in front of which Bowie was photographed.

In a minute, I'll tell you how you can visit the spot.

By overlaying the original photo over a photo I took at the site, as is PopSpots style, we get this picture.

And this picture . . . .

And this picture . . . .

Other PopSpots followers, Bowie fans, and I had been looking for the location of this photoshoot off-and-on since the pictures came out in 2016, eight years ago.

The address wasn't given in books, magazines, or online. And that kind of back gate/ doorway could be found all over New York CIty, proving it hard to track down.

So every so often I would use Google Street Views to go up and down the streets of known Bowie locations looking for that door.

I mostly looked along street that were near the following places (below) . . . (for the specific addresses, see the Timeline following this list);

1) Bowie's rooftop apartment on Lafayette Street in Soho New York;
2) Where Bowie recorded Blackstar at The Magic Shop in Soho, and Human Worldwide Studios in Chelsea, NY;
3) The off-Broadway theater where he produced Lazarus in the East Village;
4) The film studio where someone on Reddit said he supposedly filmed videos for the songs "Blackstar" and "Lazarus," said to be a complex called 1896 Studios & Stage in Bushwick, New York.

The explanation of my search continues after the Timeline.

Bowie's Last Year Timeline:

(This gives the adresses of his apartment, recording studios, and filimg studios.

• 2015

Bowie is living with his wife Iman at 285 Lafayette Street near Soho in downtown New York CIty. He lived there since 1999.

• January 2015 - December 2016

Throughout 2015 Bowie records the album Blackstar in secret at a recording studio called The Magic Shop (1988-2016) which was located at 49 Crosby Street in Soho, NYC, and also (some vocals) at Human Worldwide Studios at 27 West 20th Street #801 in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York CIty.

• September 2015

Bowie films a video for Blackstarin an unnamed film studio in Brooklyn. (It later turns out to be one of the 50-odd film studio/stages owned by a company called Broadway Stages. Specifically, Bowie filmed at Broadway Stage's Stage 35 at 520 Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, an industrial area near the Queens border.

• November 2015

Bowie films a video for "Lazarus," a song from Blackstar, in an unnamed film studio Brooklyn. (It later turns out to be the 1896 Studios & Stages complex at 592 Johnson Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

• November 19, 2015

Bowie releases the first video - "Blackstar" - from his last studio album Blackstar.

• Dec. 7, 2015

Bowie's last last public appearence is at the opening of his off-Broadway musical called "Lazarus" which was produced at the New York Theater Workshop (theater) located at 79-83 East 4th Street in the East Village of New York City.

• Dec. 17, 2015

"Lazarus," the second digital single from Blackstar, is released.

• Jan. 7, 2016

Lazarus, the video single, is released.

• Jan 8, 2016

Blackstar, the album, is released (It's also Bowie's 69th birthday).

• Jan. 8, 2016

Three publicity shots of Bowie taken by Jimmy King are put on Bowie's website and Instagram page. No details as to when or where they were shot are given. (These are the ones this webpage is about.) Jimmy King was Bowie's longtime collaborator, stylist, archivist, and sometimes photographer.

• Jan 10, 2016

Bowie passes away two days after the release of his album Blackstar.

• October 2016

The soundtrack to the musical Lazarus is released.

Here's Bowie atop his Lafayette Street apartment with the Wall Street area of Manhattan in the far distance.

The top floors of this building held Bowie's rooftop apartment at 285 Lafayette Street just south of Houston Street in New York City.

This map, below, from the New York Times, showed other places Bowie hung out in Greenwich Village and I combed all through therse streets also in Google Street View looking for the door..

The search - continued. . .

Finally in June of 2025, while testing out Chat GBT, I asked the program "where did Bowie film his last video" and, instead of the response of "the 1896 Stages" which Google usually came up with, Chat GBT came up with a location and address that I had not hear of heard of, specifically: "the Broadway Stages at 520 Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

It turned out to be the place where I eventually found the right location. But at this point it was just another place to look.

Just so you know the site's location in relation to Manhattan, I made a litte map of the location, below:

As I poked around the buildings at 520 Kingsland with Google Street View, I could see what could potentially be the doorway in the distance (this was as close as Google Street View would take me). As you can see in the picture below, there was a larger doorway on the right, and a smaller grey doorway on the left, just like in the Bowie #1 picture above.

But I had some things to do and I put the search off for a week. At is happend, a PopSpot follower from Bourdeaux, France, named Adrien Jols wrote me asking about what I had found in the Bowie search.

He had looked at all the same places I had but he didn't know about the Kingsland Avenue clue. So I told it to him and asked him to look around himself with Google Street View. He sent back pretty much the exact same Google Street View photo that I had screen-shot of the door and we agreed that that doorway looked highly interesting.

So, since we were both on a roll, I told him I'd check out the location the next day and find out if it was the right door or not. (Thanks for getting me to move on this, Adrien!)

Before I did though, that night I "flew" over the site in Google Street Views to look again at the doorway.

The picture below is what I saw.

On one hand, there looked like a black mat at the entrance that was very similar in shape to one in the Bowie #1 picture.

On the other hand, the doorway behind the mat looked like a wider entrance than the one Bowie was pictured in front of.

We'd see tomorrow!

So the next day, I took a subway to the Greenpoint subway station in Brooklyn. Then, finding that the next bus to Kingsland Avenue was 1/2-hour away, I hailed a taxi and had the driver drop me off outside the gates at 520 Kingsland Avenue.

(side note: #1: The taxi driver didn't want to tke me there because he wanted to go to LaGuardia. But I waved a $20 bill in front to him and told him he could have the whole thing - more than the ride was worth. And he gladly accepted it. Deal made.

In the picture below you can see the Bowie location I was going to in relation to Manhattan, and Queens, where I live.

Basically, it would not be wrong to describe this industrial area as "the middle of nowhere."

Here's another overhead view of the doorway (circled) that I was going to.

You can see that the roofs of the buildings have gardens and walkways. I would visit those later, and if you ever go to this location, you should check them out. They are free community gardens. Great views.

Here is where the taxi from the Greennpoint subway station dropped me off. The door was beyond that fence.

My heart was beating a little fast. It was almost 100 degrees out and soon I woud find either the Bowie door . . . or find a disapointing dead end to the search. I started walking.

Off to my left was this fantastic Onion-shaped walter filtration plant. I had never heard of it before.

Now, continuing my walk, I could see in the distance - the "Bowie door."

Closer . . .

As I got closer a guy guy who worked there, standing next to a UPS truck asked me if I needed directions. "No thanks." I said. "Just checking out the doorways."

He left. And then -- there it was! I could tell right way from the repaired brickwork on the sides and the 2-inch dark horizontal beam across the top of the entrance that I was in Bowieland! Bingo!

So, for the next few minutes I took a variety of shots, so that later, using Photoshop, I would be able to overlay the three Bowie photos in order to make the three "PopSpots" you saw at the beginning of this entry.

One of the Bowie shots has Bowie looking off to the side. I stood where Bowie had stood and took a view of what he would have seen.

This is looking in the other direction from the last photo. From what I have been told, Bowie filmed part of Lazarus behind the door that says "Stage 35."

When I go to a location I often bring a blow-up of the photo in order to judge how far back to take my background photos so there is spce all around the photo.

Here I did it for the sideway-standing photo.

This is looking up toward the roof.

A detail.

More details from the right side.

An angle shot.

After the last shot, the UPS truck drove off, allowing me take some pictures from further back.

This was the first.

This was from closer in. After this shot, I noticed the black broom and dustpan in the doorway, so I took them out for a uncluttered shot.

A shot from far away without the broom.

This is the photo I used for the background of the three PopSpots.

This was a little tilted.

This shot explain the complex of buildings better. The cool part of the complex is a free meadown on the roof that you can visit and walk around. You can see the sign for it that says "Upper Meadow"

To get to the elevator to the roof, you enter a door under the red stairs.

The roof garden is administed by the Kingsland Wildflower Community Group. Their office is on the 4th floor.

This is their sign inside the building. I went up to the 4th floor where some people welcome you. Then I walked up a flight of stairs to the roof.

I had emailed them the day before for an appointment to see the roof after I searched for the Bowie door.

Here's the initial view of the roof deck.

Off to the right is the cool looking Water Treatment plant. Lower Manhattan is in the distance.

This water ball was in the center of the decl.

This is a view from the end of the deck, looking north toward Queens.

That's my finger poking in from the left side. Whoops!

Well, that was my big day, folks. Thank for journeying with me.

After I was through, I walked about 500 feet out to Greenpoint Ave, where I waired for the bus. It could have taken 1/2 hour to come, but I lucked out with 6 minutes.

The bus goes about a mile and drops you off at the Greenpoint subway. Then you find your way back to where ever you are coming from.

Ch-ch-changes to you!

WHAT FOLLOWS ARE SOME BOWIE STUDIES THAT POPSPOTS HAS DONE OVER THE YEARS IN CASE YOU MIDSSED THEM.

Here's a nice photo we found of Bowie's living room at 285 Lafayette Street.

Bowie in Genoa, Italy in April 1976.

Bowie, the day after his 50th birthday, outside a small British-run tea cafe called Tea & Sympathy at 108 Greenwich Ave. in Greenwich Village. (Bowie photo by Kevin Cummins)

Bowie outside the entrance to the Carlyle Hotel located at 35 East 76th Street (at Madison Ave) on Manhattan's Upper East Side circa 1982-83. (photo by Art Zelin/Getty)

These next two shots are from the "Jean Genie" official video on YouTube - produced and directed by Mick Rock in San Francisco in October, 1972.

From Ai: "The woman in David Bowie's "The Jean Genie" music video is Cyrinda Foxe. She was a model and actress, and the video, directed by Mick Rock, features her posing and dancing with Bowie, who wanted her to embody a "Marilyn brand" type of woman. Foxe was also a notable figure in the 1970s rock scene, having worked for Bowie's management company and later marrying New York Dolls' David Johansen and then Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. "

Note: the Mars Hotel (the same one from the Grateful Dead cover) was demolished and replaced by a large building. The address was 192 4th Street in the South of Market area.

From the "Jean Genie" video. Cyrinda Foxe and David Bowie.

This was one of the earliest PopSpots we did. Bowie is standing on the steps of 23 Heddon Street in London, just off Regent Street. (The Bowie photo was taken at night by photogrpher Brian Ward in January 1972.)

"K. West" was a furrier.

I had taken the background photo of Heddon Street on a trip to London in 1987. My wife, Louise, took this of me doing my best Ziggy.

This shows how the photos match up.