here we go.
My submission for last week. It is without the pictures :3
DAVID BAILEY
Bailey, when you read this name most of the people will refer to the Bailey's Irish Cream which is an Irish whiskey with cream based liqueur (according to Wikipedia) but very few will recognise it as the name of a well known photographer. Yes, I am talking about David Royston Bailey, a British photographer who has been active since 1959. He was a member of Black Trinity along with Terence Donovon and Brian Duffy, a group of the first real celebrity photographers who created the "Swinging London" of the 1960s. They interacted with actors, royalty and famous musicians which soon saw them rising up to celebrity status.
David Bailey has also been the inspiration for a movie by Michaelangelo Antonioni in 1966 called Blowup. Box of Pin-Ups (1964) was another unique venture by Bailey that had a collection of poster prints of famous people during the 1960s, it included people like the Beatles, the Kray brothers, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol and many more. It was something that was done for the first time and for the last time too because they were some objections regarding this project. There was no American version nor a second British issue however it did show the changing status of a photographer and the record sale of a single box of pin-ups is believed to be above 20,000 pounds.
He wasn't only an exceptional photographer with over 800 pages of Vogue editorial in one year alone but was also considered to be, ""the king lion on the Savannah: incredibly attractive, with a dangerous vibe. He was the electricity, the brightest, most powerful, most talented, most energetic force at the magazine" according to his former girlfriend, Penelope Tree. Even the Creative Director of American Vogue stated that, "It was the Sixties, it was a raving time, and Bailey was unbelievably good-looking. He was everything that you wanted him to be – like the Beatles but accessible – and when he went on the market everyone went in. We were all killing ourselves to be his model, although he hooked up with Jean Shrimpton pretty quickly". It is obvious from these comments that David Bailey was very much desired back in the 60s, not only for his skills as a photographer but as a handsome young man too.
David Bailey wasn't only an ace photographer but also a successful director as he had directed several television commercials and documentaries from 1966 onwards. He even directed and produced documentaries titled Beaton, Warhol and Visconti between 1968 to 1971. He published the Ritz Newspaper with David Litchfield in 1976 which only proofed further that he was a man with many tricks up his sleeve. Other than capturing people through his photographs he too has been photographed for several things such as album art for the Rolling Stones and Marianne Faithfull. In 1970, Bailey was hired by Island Records' Chris Blackwell to take publicity photos of Cat Stevens (who is also know as Yusuf Islam) for his album called Tea for the Tillerman. Although Stevens hated his pictures being taken he did allow Bailey's picture to be put up on the inside of his album sleeve. He even photographed Alice Cooper for Vogue while he was completely naked except for holding a snake. Later on Cooper asked Bailey to photograph him for his chart album topping called, "Billion Dollar Babies" where they were photographed with a billion dollars and a baby wearing mascara.
Over the years he not only was not only appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 16th June 2001 for his services to Art but was also awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in 2005 for his contribution to the art of photography. In the same year he was a part of the feature called British Rule for GQ magazine which talked about the British influence on Rock and Roll covering musicians like Razorlight, M.I.A, Kaiser Chiefs and many more.
Other than photography, Bailey has a keen interest in painting and has also gained fame with his books such as Goodbye baby and Amen, Trouble and Strife, If we shadows, Chasing Rainbows and a lot more. David Bailey is now 75 and is considered to be a living legend for he changed the course of photography for the better. He captured the essence of the age of rock and roll in its truest and most raw form.
