One of the first celebrity photographers, David
Bailey socialized with many of the cultural icons of the
60s - he lived with Mick Jagger, married the legendary
French film actress Catherine Deneuve and had
relationships with the models Jean Shrimpton and
Penelope Tree. Along with Brian Duffy and Terence
Donovan, he was one of the 'Terrible Trio' - self-taught
East End boys who rebelled against the precious style of
fashion portraiture as practiced by society
photographers like Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson.
His own fame was confirmed when director Michelangelo
Antonioni used him as inspiration for the character of
fast-living photographer Thomas Hemmings in cult film
''Blow-Up'' (1966). Outside the world of fashion
photography, Bailey has pursued numerous personal and
commercial projects; documenting the streetscapes of
London, photographing the people and places of Havana,
Cuba, and producing an intimate series of portraits of
model Catherine Bailey, his current wife. He has also
created record-sleeve art, feature films, documentaries
and around 500 commercials.The vigour and variety of his
work has made him the subject of numerous exhibitions,
including a major traveling show that opened at the
Barbican, London, in 1999 entitled ''The Birth of
Cool''. This handsome monograph provides an overview of
Bailey's career, including works from key monographs
such as his debut ''Box of Pin-Ups'' (1964) and the
controversial series ''The Lady is a Tramp'' (1995). The
book, on a photographer whose reputation only continues
to grow, will appeal to all photography enthusiasts and
students, and to anyone with an interest in popular
culture of the 1960s onwards. |
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