David Bailey: Bailey's Naga Hills

by David Bailey (Photographer), William Dalrymple (Contributor)

This book is David Bailey’s (born 1938) portrayal of the landscapes and personalities of the densely forested Naga Hills, part of the complex mountain barrier between India and Myanmar (Burma), and home to the Naga tribes (“those with pierced ears” in Burmese). Bailey had hoped to visit the Naga Hills since he was a young man, but access had been continually restricted because of war and unrest--until 2012, when that wish finally became a reality.

Bailey had initially wanted to photograph the story of the last headhunters in the region, but in typical Bailey style, he improvised when things didn’t quite go to he recalls for example cutting though difficult terrain (at times needing to walk beside the four-wheel drives), becoming lost for hours, only to be discovered by armed men who directed him to a party at a guard post, where he danced the night away with the soldiers.

160 pages, Hardcover

Published February 27, 2018

About the author

David Bailey is one of the most respected photographers in the world. He worked as a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine, but he is also known for his work on the ‘Swinging London’ scene from the 1960s, which gave him celebrity photographer status.

Bailey’s fashion work and celebrity portraiture, characterized by stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting effects, transformed British fashion and celebrity photography from chic but reserved stylization to something more youthful and direct. His work reflects the 1960s British cultural trend of breaking down antiquated and rigid class barriers by injecting a working-class or “punk” look into both clothing and artistic products. Bailey himself became a celebrity who epitomized “swinging London”; he was known for his affairs with several celebrated women, among them the model Jean Shrimpton and the actress Catherine Deneuve, whom he married in 1965 (divorced 1972). He is thought to have inspired the role of the photographer, Thomas, in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-up (1966).