David Bailey
(1938 - )
David Bailey was born in London, England in 1938. Bailey did poorly at school due to undetected dyslexia and irregular wartime schooling. Cinema influenced Bailey's work. He was a member of the British Royal Air Force based in Singapore. In 1959, he started working for photographer John French.
In 1960, he freelanced and began his career as a fashion photographer, working for numerous magazines, including Vogue, Elle and Glamour, and for many British newspapers. Using a 35 mm single-lens reflex enabled him to shoot outdoors. Spontaneity of gesture and the incorporation of random elements brought a filmic quality to his photographs that reflected his enthusiasm for French New Wave cinema.
David Bailey's portraits are testimony of the iconic personalities of the later 20th century. His first publication, David Bailey's Box of Pin-ups (1965); contained portraits of pop stars, art directors, actors, models, and photographers. He has also directed documentary films and television commercials. Bailey's photographs and films captured the often hedonistic lifestyle and social mix of the 1960s. Many of Bailey's pictures were taken for Vogue magazine, but his book Goodbye Baby and Amen is the complete record of his work, capturing the spirit and look of that decade with portraits of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, actresses, politicians, artists, and writers. He married the French actress Catherine Deneuve. In addition to his books, gallery and museum shows, and contributions to major magazines and regular work for Vogue, Bailey also made two noteworthy films, Beaton by Bailey (1971) and Andy Warhol (1973).
In 1984, Bailey had a major retrospective at the International Center of Photography in New York. David Bailey was hailed as one of the most innovative photographers of the 1960s. His lively, fresh style successfully captured the prevailing youthful outlook of the decade. He worked consistently with one model, in the 1960s, Jean Shrimpton, and later Marie Helvin, concentrating on the relationship between the woman and the clothes, emphasizing the freedom of fashion with clear, striking, uncomplicated pictures. During the 1970s he began directing films and since that time has produced many books of his photographs.
