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Overview
No photographer since the 1960s has had a greater impact on our perception of photography and the photographer than David Bailey. As famous as the famous faces on which he trained his camera, he opened up a world in which he was himself a central figure.If Bailey and his work had been predominantly associated with London in the sixties, his subject matter in the seventies was truly international. The tone was set by his first major assignment for Vogue in January 1970, a fashion shoot in the context of dramatic environmental backdrops in Turkey. Throughout the decade—the last to witness lavish spending by magazines—Bailey appeared to use fashion sittings as a means to fulfill his childhood ambition to be the great explorer, while at the same time becoming a consummate master of studio fashion in the age of the "glamour revival." Bailey's photography in the 1970s is most significant for the expansion of its range. Coinciding with the rapid growth of photographic galleries, he was determined to photograph cultures that fascinated him. His incisive documents of India, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, and New Guinea, many of them previously unknown, culminated at the end of the decade in the most political of his reportages, that of the Vietnamese boat people. At the same time, acclaimed TV documentaries on Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, and Luchino Visconti provided opportunities for extended series of stills, as compelling today as they were at the time. 250 illustrations in color and duotone.Author Biography: David Bailey's previous books include Trouble and Strife, If We Shadows, The Lady Is a Tramp, Rock and Roll Heroes, and Chasing Rainbows. Martin Harrison is a leading expert in the fields of both fashion photography and documentary photography. His previous books include Appearances: Fashion Photography Since 1945 and David Bailey: Birth of the Cool (1957-1969).
Editorials
Library Journal
David Bailey is perhaps best known as a photographic chronicler of the 1960s London scene-see, for example, David Bailey: Birth of the Cool (compiled by Harrison). For this volume, Harrison gathered almost 300 of Bailey's color and black-and-white photographs from the 1970s. During that time, Bailey broadened his scope, shooting people and places on location in New Guinea, Japan, Haiti, Brazil, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. He also continued his fashion photography, showcasing an eye for texture and line and an almost playful sense of composition. He often highlighted the brittle beauty of the models by placing them in incongruous settings, e.g., the Turkish countryside, inside an African hut, or aboard a massive motorcycle. Later that decade, he turned his camera in a new direction and joined the ranks of the concerned photographer. Indian street scenes, New Guinean tribesmen, the plight of Vietnamese boat people, daily life in Haiti-Bailey explored all these subjects with his camera. And, as always, there is his admirable portraiture, celebrities as well as the person on the street. Chapter introductions by photographic historian Harrison add a socioaesthetic context to the photographs. Highly recommended for larger collections.-Jeff Ingram, Newport P.L., OR Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Book Details
Published
November 10, 2003
Publisher
London : Thames & Hudson, c2003.
Pages
256
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780500542736