NY JS DB 62

by David Bailey (Photographer)

In January 1962, still in his early twenties, photographer David Bailey fulfilled a dream that dated back to his years in Singapore, when he served in the Royal Air Force. Heading to the U.S., home to the jazz music he so admired, Bailey made his first foreign trip for Vogue, accompanied by his model and girlfriend, Jean Shrimpton. The impact of the couple's early collaborations set new standards that helped put Britain back on the world map of popular culture--though at the time, his aesthetic was so controversial that, as a representative of the magazine, Vogue asked him not to wear his leather jacket in the St. Regis Hotel. (Of course he ignored the advice.) The groundbreaking series that Bailey produced with his recently acquired 35mm camera was special. Newly freed from the confines of the studio, he shot rapidly on the streets and recorded the pioneer moment just before meeting Andy Warhol, and a year before his friends the Rolling Stones launched their own transatlantic invasion. Bailey's historic visual breakthrough is manifested in the energy of these images, even as they convey a certain innocence--the photographs of these "absolute beginners" have a charm and freshness that still resonate today.

66 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2007

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).