David Bailey burst onto the scene in 1960 with his revolutionary photographs for Vogue. Discarding the rigid rules of a previous generation of portrait and fashion photographers, he channelled the energy of London's newly informal street culture into his work. Funny, brutally honest and ferociously talented, he became as famous as his subjects.
Now in his eighties, he looks back on an outrageously eventful life. Born into an East End family, his dyslexia saw him written off as stupid at school. He hit a low point working as a debt collector until he discovered a passion for photography that would change everything. The working-class boy became an influential artist. Along the way he became friends with Mick Jagger, hung out with the Krays, got into bed with Andy Warhol and made the Queen laugh.
His love-life was never dull. He propelled girlfriend Jean Shrimpton to stardom, while her angry father threatened to shoot him. He married Catherine Deneuve a month after meeting her. Penelope Tree’s mother was unimpressed when he turned up on her doorstep. ‘It could be worse, I could be a Rolling Stone,’ Bailey told her. He went on to marry Marie Helvin and then Catherine Dyer, with whom he has three children.
He is also a film and documentary director, has shot numerous commercials and has never stopped working. A born storyteller, his autobiography is a memorable romp through an extraordinary career.
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).
Cockney rebel David Bailey was a contemporary of the Rolling Stones. In the 60's & 70's he revolutionized fashion photography and in later years took up film and documentary production.
His memoirs are fascinating and he provides a humorous analysis of 'Swinging London'. Born and bred a Cockney, Bailey's autobiography - written with James Fox - is witty, angry, engrossing and frequently politically incorrect. I enjoyed it immensely.
Bailey's attitude to women was decidedly dodgy. But his lovers, wives, colleagues and children are also interviewed. They willingly provide insights as to why he was so extraordinarily successful professionally, sexually and as an artist.
I love the formula of this book. It is structured like a new wave movie. Bailey is a brilliant storyteller and his story is intertwined with interviews carried out like just couple of months of the November 2020 publication date. In fact, the book ends with an interview with Darren Rodwell, the leader of the Barking and Dagenham Council. After all this bohemian gossip we end up hearing about working class politics and the future of London's East End legacy.
An East London lad, with a sense of beauty, and who for sure, knew beautiful women. On the other hand the memoir is very so-so. It would have been better if he just focused on the 1950s/1960s and saved the rest for another volume. It has that 'did this, done that' approach to one's autobiography, but it gets tedious after awhile. All the usual suspects are here.
Some twenty five years ago I attended a lecture by Bailey. He was charismatic, funny, entertaining and of course the photographs were wonderful. With James Fox steering the ship as he did on Keith Richards excellent autobiography Life I was really looking forward to reading this. However I found it deadly dull. When Bailey runs out of steam we have transcribed interviews with friends, colleagues, ex wives and girl friends. These offer little to what’s been written in the previous pages, they break up any rhythm the narrative has and perhaps prove the adage that if you can remember the sixties you weren’t really there. Bailey drops the F and C bombs constantly and is often contradictory and hazy on dates. What did I learn? He likes birds; parrots and has forty of them and he doesn’t like women with big tits, a fact he reminds us of constantly. The whole experience is like sitting next to a curmudgeonly old man in a pub talking about himself constantly. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case that is really true. Treat yourself to one of his fabulous books of photographs because that’s where you’ll find Bailey’s true talent.
I guess as a photographer myself, & also an east end lad born in Whitechapel & moving to Wallwood Road Leytonstone I was intrigued to learn what was the driving force behind possibly the greatest fashion photographer of our time.
I’m 10 years younger than David Bailey, although I did do some fashion & hairdressing photography I never really enjoyed it I ended up as an art photographer which I did enjoy. What I like about the book is his determination to change the awful stylised fashion photographs of the fifties, As he says to the art director of Vogue Magazine “who stands like that” that took a lot of guts & confidence to stand up to the system
Even if you’re not interested in photography, or you just take pics on an I phone I do recommend this book as it’s a real insight into a very interesting bloke !!
I laughed quite a bit with this book. He's cantankerous and honest. He doesn't deny his shortcomings. He wasn't vile about sex even though he has a reputation for lots of it. I didn't know anything about him until I read this book. I love the dishing about days long gone. He has a raucous tale.
A great read, he certainly won’t die wondering. A life lived to the full and particularly enjoyed the early chapters on the east end of London and the Second World War.
Born 1938. Casual descriptions of life as a young boy in WW2, with bombing, and later V1 flying bombs, are brilliant, as are most of Bailey's observations. "...bombing started up again in early 1944, when i was 6, and lasted a few months. They called it the Baby Blitz. Every night we used to go down the coal cellar, always about six o'clock when Toytown started on the radio. Sometimes we'd stand at the top of the stairs so we could listen to it, coming from the kitchen while the bombs were going off. The coal cellar was probably the worst place to go because it was full of gas pipes. We used to sleep down there in a big brass bed, surrounded by coal..... When the ack-ack guns went off the house would shake and all the distemper, the white paint, used to flake off the cellar walls and float down, covering us. I always felt it was like being in one of those snowglobes at Christmas."
Early adopter of 35mm camera for fashion photography - NY Vogue did not like it, wanted plate camera and elaborate studio setup, with every detail carefully staged by a crew of 20 - did not like Bailey's photos of model on footpath by a puddle - Bailey liked easy and quick setup possible with 35mm, and more informal photographs. Liked black and white, possibly a result of his mother (Glad) taking him as a young boy to movies every weekend. While he is very heterosexual, homosexuals clearly found him very attractive - he landed his first job in photography with (the gay) John French, who sometimes let Bailey use the studio for his own photos, and helped him into the photography world in other ways. "Fashion was very staid then. Models wore gloves and pearls; they were supposed to look 'ladylike'. Johns great innovation was that he'd developed a photographic technique to get pictures to look sharp and contrasted on absorbent, low quality, newsprint. . . More contrast, no middle tone, almost black and white." Presumably a lot of people in the arts and photo world were homosexual, and David's attractiveness (and very obvious talent) evidently helped him advance.
1963 Diana Vreeland at American Vogue - she had really good eye - spotted Yves St Laurent as up and coming style king - happy with Bailey's preferred photographic style ie more casual and not so much studio setup - Bailey and Shrimpton going great - Both insist that they needed each other for the success that came with this new style.
The last half of the book is largely gossip about famous people Bailey got chummy with - when DID Bailey first bed Penelope Tree - what Marlene Dietrich said about Jean Shrimpton ("Can't see what all the fuss is about") - the nasty nature of Vadim (lover of Catherine Deneuve prior to her marrying Bailey) - what various Vogue editors were receptive to by way of photos that weren't in the studio tradition - Bailey's parrots and slovenly house habits . . . etc. Very entertaining to read but (in places) not much substance, apart from some sharp observation about cultural mores, and about movies that were about at the time eg Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" and "Cul de Sac", he thought Antonioni's "Blow Up" to be ". . . a bit silly, I didn't like all the symbolism, and intellectually I didn't think it was a very smart movie. The portrayal of women was as much an Italian view as anything to do with London. . . Roman Polanski told me that Antonioni had never seen anything like London, or rock and roll antics like Pete Townshend smashing his guitar on stage. Nothing like that was happening in Italy - it was still far behind things, still in the grip of the Catholic Church - or in France even, said Roman."
His impression of Fellini and Visconti - "Fellini suffocated me with bad taste. He was the king of vulgarity. And Visconti suffocated me with good taste. Mastroianni always looked like he had crepe-soled shoes on. He always moved so silently. . . . My big influence was Cocteau. . . I used to draw my storyboards for commercials like Cocteau and Picasso and people liked my storyboards more than the commercials."
Bailey's status, work as a photographer, and incredible energy, brought him into association (and friends with) many of the famous and leading style setters of the time - from Avedon to Irving Penn to Fellini to Roman Polanski to The Beetles to Andy Warhol . . .; and many stunning models - Shrimpton, Penelope Tree, Anjelica Huston, Marie Helvin . . . most of who he seemed to have a sexual liason with - and he writes acute observation in a sort of gossipy slightly offhand way which does illuminate the impression you have of all these people.
David Bailey towards the end of his life now recounts the highlights of his career and life from cockney west-end grifter to bumping shoulders with the royals.
He was friends with the Krays and Princess Margaret alike and his photos are etched on the minds of generations.
Those iconic photos of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, even the late Queen herself in vivid black and white contrast.
He also slept with just about every model and woman he came into contact with. He’s probably scored a number of women greater than the shutter count of most cameras.
His style is very conversational with his trademark honesty coming to the fore. He particularly likes the word “cunt” and uses it as a term of endearment.
He gives lots of details about his time shooting for Vogue, the Ritz, newspapers and other publications helping to create almost single handedly the zeitgeist of London’s 60s fashion scene which swept the nation.
He’s also had a career working in advertising and film with varied success, more so in his advertising campaigns; notably for Greenpeace and working with Donald Trump���s airline.
He has a lot of candid interviews with people that were important in his life who are equally open and honest in their recounting of their sometimes intimate moments with the photographer.
His success even led him to become a household name with people repeating the now infamous rhetorical “who do you think you are? David Bailey?”. Made famous by his Olympus ads in the 80s, even I’ve heard it many times growing up in the 90s. I don’t hear it so much today but a lot of people would still get the reference today.
He was rightly given recognition in the forms of awards and royal distinctions but he made so many people’s careers and brought people along for the ride and made his mark on the culture of the country and gives back so generously so in that sense he’s a really inspiring person and has greatly increased the artistic sensibilities of our nation.
David Bailey’s pictures are iconic and I always thought he would be a fascinating person to find out a bit more about. Hence when his autobiography came out I grabbed myself a copy. I did listen to the audio book in the end, which I enjoyed.
At the end of the book I can say I did really enjoy the listen. From his childhood during the war through his years as a wayward, but iconic fashion photographer, his life is a life well lived. The main narrator did a good job and enjoyed listening to him. The interviews with various key people (including wives!) in his life that break up the narrative added a layer I quite enjoyed. It made you realise that not everyone remembers an event in quite the same way and it was interesting to hear how people close to him see him.
Did I come out of this memoir liking David Bailey? I am not sure. He comes across as a bit of a selfish, at times sexist bastard to be honest. However, I think he knows he is and that somehow makes me soften towards him as well. I guess he is very much an East End boy that way. My husband’s grandad is a proper East End boy and I recognise much of him in David Bailey in the way he speaks about things.
The co-writer James Fox also handled Keith Richard’s autobiography, which I listened to a few months back. I enjoyed both.
I would recommend this one if you are into pop culture. It’s very much about the people and the time rather than the fashion, which I was relieved about. I am just not sure how well David Bailey comes across, as he is definitely cocky and obnoxious sometimes. Mostly I did not mind.
The story of David Bailey: action over thinking. David Bailey, born at the end of the war, is a bloke from the London East End...the East End run by the Krays, by the Barking boys, in the hands of the English middle class...coming out of a war that left the city destroyed by bombs. Men and women, tough men and women, coming out of poverty, scrambling through life in the best way they could, often violently, often constrained, often messing up each other's lives. A little fortuitously, serendipitously, Bailey manages to get into the world of fashion photography and from there to build an incredible career and meet so many people that shaped the World of entertainment from the 60s to date. His rough story telling at times is repetitive, sharing the same story or point twice in the same book; he is the centre of his world and acts and talks according to it. Everything and everyone comes after himself. The three things he mostly values in life: photography, parrots and pussy. Not necessarily in this order. He has a great story to tell and it was great for me to read this book: doing things matters so much more than just thinking about doing them or talking about them. Do, do, do!
Started reading this in the library out of vague gossipy interest. It was readable but my overwhelming feeling was what an appalling, big-headed, boastful unpleasant man David Bailey seems to be. Only views women in terms of their looks, which is unsurprising, I guess, and has no real insight into anyone, so although he meets loads of interesting people, he doesn't really have the psychological acuity, or perhaps the articulacy, to describe them. The opposite of James Ivory's memoirs which I have recently read, and which are full of interesting psychological insights into the famous people he knows.
I wanted to love this. I didn’t. If you saw “We’ll Take Manhattan” (fictional odd story of Bailey’s origins), the actor who plays him talks in short almost barking tones where he is very exacerbating and selfish. Bailey is brilliant so it didn’t bother me much but then the book is written in that exact tone. The narrative doesn’t flow well. More like a thousand small anecdotes over 60 years ago shoved together. I wasn’t going to quit it but didn’t like it.
Hell of a life David Bailey has lived. This book is consuming from start to finish. The interview format with Fox and friends/family/lovers is awesome. Bailey is crude, candid, and straight to the point. The risqué tone makes it all the more merrier.
David Bailey has had a great life as a studio photographer, commercial film director and so on. He was the guy who found Jean Shrimpton, the face of the 60's. He has been living an incredible life, a very lucky man.
A fascinating creative life! Loved reading about the post war stories of Davids youth and how he got his start! British society changed so much... lmpacted music, fashion and the culture! London was hip and happening .. still is the coolest city in my opinion!
Muchísimo contenido, cotilleos de primer nivel y name dropping constante. A la vez, menudo retrato de un egoísta supremo atrapado en su propio personaje. No sé si me parece peor si está siendo del todo sincero o forzando la imagen de cínico narcisista que se espera de él.
Really enjoyed this book. I grew up in the 60’s but was too young to understand what was happening then. I didn’t always agree with what he says but he has an undeniable talent and changed fashion photography beyond recognition.