David Royston Bailey was born in London’s East End in 1938 (PDN, n. d). His family was forced to relocate to Heigham road after their house was destroyed by a Second World War bomb. He was born at an era when people had very limited choices in the job market.
Bailey had no intention of becoming a photographer. PDN (n. d) clarifies that the chances of becoming a photographer grew even dimmer after he was unable to take snap shots with the family’s camera. He involved himself in a variety of activities in order to obtain some money for his upkeep.Some of the activities he involved himself in were window dressing, shoe selling, and carpet selling (Ottoni, n. d.
). Baileys also held a job as a debt collector for a boxing referee. His taste of style and fashion came when he saw her mother trying on a Dior overcoat of Selfridges (Miles, 2009). He mother was swirling against the back light producing a very beautiful image. That was the first vision of style and women that Bailey had. Bailey’s involvement in painting during his childhood acted as relief from the academic underachievement that was caused by undiagnosed dyslexia in addition to regular wartime schooling.
Bailey was good at drawing during his childhood; he still enjoys drawing and painting (Higgins, 2010). Cinemas acted as a major influence to Bailey’s interest in photography offering varying intimations of glamour, sophistication and fame. His family used to go to the cinema every night, and as a result Bailey was able to see seven to eight movies a week. Bailey’s love for natural history also acted as a major driving factor to photography. Beside the love of natural history the other factor that inspired Bailey was the style in addition to the free expression of girls who were working in the dance halls (PDN, n.d).
Bailey began to deeply immerse into the field of photography after he was posted to Singapore by the British Royal Air Force in 1956 (PDN, n. d). In Singapore Bailey was trained in jungle rescue and parachuting. His service to the Royal Air Force acted as a major turning point to his career. His love for photography was revived after viewing some the photographic work done by Henri Cartier Bresson, especially a magnificent photograph of four Indian ladies in saris looking across a valley in the Himalayas (PDN, n. d).
The work of Henri acted as a great inspiration to Bailey.Bresson‘s photography acted as a base which changed Bailey’s view of photography, design and style for ever. Bailey realized that photography was not merely about a recording machine. Bailey started going through copies of life in addition to various American photo journals.
In 1957, Bailey bought his first camera, a single-lens reflex (Higgins, 2010). This camera made it easy for him to take pictures outdoors with a ‘from the hip’ immediacy in coping with the volatile atmosphere that characterized the sixties and the decades earlier.The integration of random elements as well as the naturalness of gesture introduced a filmic aspect to his work and mirrored his interest for French new wave films (Harry, n. d). He was besotted and within no time the hope of becoming a photographer turned out to a reality.
As a result of his poor academic record he was unable to secure a place at the London College of Printing. Bailey secured a job with David Ollins after completing his national service in 1958. Ollins was by then the main supplier of photos to Queen Magazine. In 1959 Bailey became an assistant to John French, a fashion photographer in London (PDN, n. d).Later on Bailey left French to establish a studio of his own.
In his studio Bailey was able to perfectly make the most of the way magazines in addition to newspapers were getting into and affecting the new youth market. It was a time when young people wanted to be themselves. Bailey attracted the attention of the public when his photograph of a model kneeling on the ground appearing to kiss a squirrel was displayed in the front page of the 1960 Autumn Girl (Miles, 2009). His photographs were slowly becoming a talk of the time. His photographs were admired by everyone; both young and old.Bailey had incorporated novel techniques into the existing photography, an aspect that made his work outstanding (Harry, n.
d). Bailey started taking pictures in a manner the world had never seen before. He was taking pictures of real people in real situations. These pictures acted as a great slap of excitement; they were tremendous. Thinking of bailey as a former window cleaner was still vivid in the minds of many yet Bailey turned out to be popular as a result of his cool portraits and images of beautiful people and celebrities of the sixties (PDN, n.
d).Bailey began to transform photography by integrating novel movements and styles ahead of everyone else. At the age of twenty two years, Bailey had already secured job as a freelancer for British version of Vogue. Bailey also acted as a freelancer for other publications including the Sunday Times, Glamour, Elle, and the Daily Express among many others (Langford, 1997). During his time at Vogue, Bailey turned Jean Shrimpton into one of the supermodels of the 1960s. His photograph of Jean Shrimpton, which was taken in New York in 1962, earned him international approval.
In 1960 Bailey married Rosemary Bramble and they stayed together for a year. In 1967 he married Catherine Denevue and they stayed together for three years. Later on he married Marie Helvin and they stayed together for ten years (Miles, 2009). Currently Bailey is married to Catherine Dyer and they have three children. His fresh as well as irreverent approach to photography, fashion and design according to Miles (2009), were some of the major factors that launched his career and turned him into a leader of style in the pop culture that was slowly emerging in the sixties.
Bailey stirred the fashion department at Vogue through the implicit sexuality of his work that was an absolute opposite of the well behaved style that characterized the early sixties. Bailey managed to produce some of the most outstanding bodies of fashion, style, design and beauty of photography of the 1960s, 70s and beyond (Miles, 2009). His marriage to Catherine Denevue, a legendary French film star, acted as a major boost to his career. The best man in this wedding was Mick Jagger a member of Rolling Stones. Bailey played a major role in the shooting of the 1967 cult movie “Blow Up” starred by David Hemmings (Ottoni, n. d).
Ottoni (n.d) states that Bailey’s reputation was at its maximum during the shooting of Blow Up. Bailey and his model Vera Lehndorff offered the base for the fictional characters in this film. He later became one of the most famous photographers of the time. He became as famous as some of the people he was photographing such as Geraldine chaplain, actors Michael Caine and Peter Sellers, singers Sandie Shaw and Marianne Faithfull, and models Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy and Penelope Tree (Ottoni, n.
d). Together with other photographers of the time, Bailey greatly contributed to the creation of the Swinging London mentality of the 1960s (Miles, 2009).Miles (2009), states that the Swinging London was a culture characterized by high quality fashion in addition to celebrity elegance. Bailey as a result of his association with other celebrities, especially musicians and actors, found himself elevated to the level of a celebrity.
Bailey was among the first real celebrity photographers. Among Bailey’s most spectacular works was the one depicting Rolling Stones, which featured Brian Jones who had drowned and died in 1969 as a result of excessive consumption of alcohol and other drugs (Gazetas, 2000).Bailey also carried out the work of photography on the current fashions of the time on the streets of London as well as New York for Glamour and American Vogue magazines. Fashion photography turned out to be the most pleasing job that Bailey had ever wanted to do. His career and personal life thrived significantly during the peak of his success in the sixties (PDN, n. d).
Gazetas, (2000) makes it clear that the vigor of his revisionist fashion, portraits, design and photographs was crucial to the sparkle of the sixties renaissance in art, graphic, design, photography, and fashion.Bailey did all he could in order to elevate the position of his work to match those of television actors and stars. However, there were times when the public was more interested with the colorful exploits of his work than on his photography. His work nonetheless, spoke for itself and stood all the tests of the time.
Bailey cited Picasso as one of his greatest sources of his inspiration (PDN, n. d). Bailey claims that the first half of the twenty first century belongs to Picasso, whereas the second half belongs to photography.For over forty years Bailey has held fast to his mode of taking pictures: black and white, very graphic with extreme contrasts between darker tones and lighter values, minimalist, shot on a variety of formats (PDN, n.
d). Bailey has also produced a variety of books and directed photographic shows, films and commercials (Gazetas, 2000). Bailey published a book, Goodbye Baby and Amen, which is a complete record of his work and is a clear display of the decade he first flourished in photography. He also published another book known as David Bailey Box of Pin-Ups in 1965.
The Box acted as a distinct as well as unique commercial production that mirrored the changing strata of the photographer, in that it was now possible for one to put on the market a collection of prints this way (Higgins, 2010). In addition to fashion photography Bailey was the driving force behind the record album sleeve art which featured performers such as Marianne Faithfull and Rolling Stones (Harry, n. d). His photographs enhanced the myths of swinging London.Bailey, through his camera lens as asserted by Harry (n.
d), was able to visualize the swinging 60s of mod London in a distinct manner that now seem to provide clear characteristics of a generation. His photographs were taken in a unique manner; they separated his clients against a limited background and framed them with the periphery of the uncropped negatives (Harry, n. d). Bailey began his commercial advertisements in the mid 1960s.
In total he has directed over 500 commercial advertisements since then (Ottoni, n. d). The first commercial advertisement that Bailey directed was the Cadbury’s flake, even though this advertisement was latter on banned by the government.Bailey had a distinct characteristic of featuring both behind and in front of the camera (Ottoni, n. d).
From 1968-72 Bailey directed a number of television documentary films in addition to television commercials. In 1972, Bailey in partnership with Patrick Lichfield, another famous photographer of the time, started publishing the magazine Ritz. He later on published a book known as David Bailey's Trouble and Strife, and devoted it to his third wife Marie. This publication mainly dealt with the personality of models.Bailey has undertaken a variety of commercial in addition to personal projects including documenting London streetscapes, taking numerous photographs of people and places such as Cuba and Havana.
Bailey, along with another British photographer, Richard Avedon, is believed to have greatly influenced portrait photography in Britain (Miles, 2009). The sensitivity and emotion that Bailey captured from his subjects was inspirational. Bailey’s photographic style of the sixties has stood the test of time. Bailey’s most important photographic subjects were fashion, portraits and nudes.
The photographic work of Bailey acts as an extended document of the iconic celebrities of the mid and late twentieth century (Harry, n. d). His high contrast and direct style turned out to be the incisive interpreter of an era. Even at an advanced age bailey continues to enjoy the success of his career as a film maker as well as a photographer. Bailey is a strict vegetarian and has not consumed meat since he was a child. He also does not take alcohol or exercise.
He enjoys bird watching but does not like football as well as a variety of other sports (Higgins, 2010).
