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David Bailey: Look
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.
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.
- GenresPhotographyNonfiction
128 pages, Hardcover
First published May 19, 2010
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Jackie Higgins
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 16, 2025
As a very, very amateur photographer in my time, I do enjoy books of photography, looking at images that I could not possibly have taken but which I can appreciate when taken by others. I do not necessarily view them with an ultra critical eye, just whether I like them or not. I say that because in the lengthy opening essay in 'David Bailey' Jackie Higgins writes an entertaining, and lengthy piece which is rather high-brow and looks at Bailey's work with a much more critical eye and compares certain photographs to earlier such examples of something similar. As I have said, I simply look at the images and decide whether I like them or not; obviously some are more noticeably constructed and while I may well appreciate that, I still have to like the finished photograph for what it is showing.
Having said all that, let's see what I particularly liked in the selection of Bailey's photographs on offer in the book. The first is a candid photograph of one of my all-time favourite actors, Michael Caine. This photograph was taken just two months after the premiere of 'The Ipcress File' and shows the actor, cigarette in mouth, looking very Harry Palmeresque , sharp suit, horn-rimmed glasses with trademark Gauloise - and iconic image.
Another almost iconic image, in a different way, is that of the facade of the ABC, Aerated Bread Company, which is very Art Deco in appearance, in the Camden Road, London in 1981. Bailey enjoyed capturing the buildings around Primrose Hill and this is one looking very impressive even though seemingly deserted! As a consequence the photograph does have an atmosphere about it, one of emptiness and dereliction, despite still looking quite impressive. Indeed, by the time Bailey's book 'London NW1' with his photographs of the area was published, the 1930s' facade had been torn down - a great pity!
Another of my favourite actors is the splendid Jack Nicholson and he appears in typical 'The Joker'-style poose. As Jackie Higgins says in the accompanying caption, mentioning the twinkle in his eye, 'it conforms to our preconception of Nicholson as Hollywood bad boy' ... but never-the-less an intriguing image.
Mick Jagger, posturing in fur-edged hood, Billy Wilder with a large sized Charlie Chaplin model close by, a riotous John Galliano displaying his talent as 'a master of the fashion world, an ageing Marianne Faithfull, still looking alluring, of which journalist Lynn Barber commented (perhaps rather unkindly), 'This is sadism, this is misogyny, this is cruelty to grandmothers' that brought the reply from Marianne, 'I'm so much older. I've stopped caring about beauty, but I still care about truth' and the tragic Sharon Tate, naked in the arms of lover Roman Polanski are all other interesting images.
All these with others, including many images of Bailey's wife Catherine, who he really enjoyed photographing especially the striking pose with her in mask and wigs, features often and altogether they make for an entertaining book to read and view.
Having said all that, let's see what I particularly liked in the selection of Bailey's photographs on offer in the book. The first is a candid photograph of one of my all-time favourite actors, Michael Caine. This photograph was taken just two months after the premiere of 'The Ipcress File' and shows the actor, cigarette in mouth, looking very Harry Palmeresque , sharp suit, horn-rimmed glasses with trademark Gauloise - and iconic image.
Another almost iconic image, in a different way, is that of the facade of the ABC, Aerated Bread Company, which is very Art Deco in appearance, in the Camden Road, London in 1981. Bailey enjoyed capturing the buildings around Primrose Hill and this is one looking very impressive even though seemingly deserted! As a consequence the photograph does have an atmosphere about it, one of emptiness and dereliction, despite still looking quite impressive. Indeed, by the time Bailey's book 'London NW1' with his photographs of the area was published, the 1930s' facade had been torn down - a great pity!
Another of my favourite actors is the splendid Jack Nicholson and he appears in typical 'The Joker'-style poose. As Jackie Higgins says in the accompanying caption, mentioning the twinkle in his eye, 'it conforms to our preconception of Nicholson as Hollywood bad boy' ... but never-the-less an intriguing image.
Mick Jagger, posturing in fur-edged hood, Billy Wilder with a large sized Charlie Chaplin model close by, a riotous John Galliano displaying his talent as 'a master of the fashion world, an ageing Marianne Faithfull, still looking alluring, of which journalist Lynn Barber commented (perhaps rather unkindly), 'This is sadism, this is misogyny, this is cruelty to grandmothers' that brought the reply from Marianne, 'I'm so much older. I've stopped caring about beauty, but I still care about truth' and the tragic Sharon Tate, naked in the arms of lover Roman Polanski are all other interesting images.
All these with others, including many images of Bailey's wife Catherine, who he really enjoyed photographing especially the striking pose with her in mask and wigs, features often and altogether they make for an entertaining book to read and view.
December 7, 2018
Little book of Bailey's works with hints about these moments
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews