David Bowie, en route from Moscow to Helsinki 1976

En route from Moscow to a press stop in Helsinki, David catches up on some local reading. The publication he’s holding is The Socialist. David was traveling on a side trip with Jimmy Sternberg (aka Iggy Pop) and photographer Andrew Kent. When their train reached the Russian border, things became a little tenser. “David and Jimmy were strip searched by guards” looking for gold-encrusted religious relics, a popular smuggling, according to the photographer. Finding no contraband, the border agents allowed the visitors to pass, undisturbed. A group of concerned European press correspondents, which had been assembled a day too early in Helsinki on account of a misreading of the train timetable, was already waiting for them.