David Bailey on his famous Sixties images
The photographer explains how some of his most famous images of the Sixties came into being as his show opens at Bonhams
The Sixties was David Bailey’s decade. He was 22 when he got his first commission from Vogue in 1960 and the energy of his revisionist fashion photographs and portraits was vital to the effervescence of that decade’s renaissance in art, fashion, graphic design and photography.
Born in East London, Bailey pushed hard against the perceived class system, elevating the position of photographers to match those of television stars and actors. It was, after all, the decade in which Princess Margaret married a photographer and Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up (1966), based on Bailey himself, strengthened the notion of the photographer as cultural icon.
Going through the Bonhams catalogue for the forthcoming sale with Bailey in his studio, I get the feeling that this is the era of which he is most fond. He talks at length of his collaborations with the Beatles (he liked Lennon best, but thought their early songs were terrible), of Michael Caine and other icons of the Sixties.
Bailey was one of the Terrible Trio of photographers, along with Brian Duffy and Terence Donovan. Their work in breaking down barriers and enabling an upwardly mobile meritocracy eclipsed that of Norman Parkinson, Cecil Beaton and their generation.
His collaboration with Jean Shrimpton sparked an unprecedented level of media attention. Together they reworked the concept of fashion photography, moving away from formalised poses to a fresher, sometimes humorous and more openly sexualised style. Bailey will always remain an emblem for that particular decade of ambition, energy and opportunism.
Pure Sixties. Pure Bailey is at Bonhams, London W1 (www.bonhams.com) from Sunday to April 7
Click the link above left to view his famous images and read how he shot them.
Writers name
Joanna Pitman, The Times 03-03-2010
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