DAVID BAILEY
David Bailey was born in 1938 in London, most iconically shaping fashion photography and film in 1960’s Britain. Before having his first Museum exhibition in 1971 at the National Portrait Gallery, Bailey was contracted to fashion magazine Vogue producing some of the most famous fashion portrait in recent times. He has photographed British icons such as the Queen, Mick Jagger, Twiggy, Andy Warhol and The Beatles.
This photograph is taken from Bailey’s photography book ‘Box of Pin-Ups’ withholding a selection of half-tone prints such as that shown below. Bailey has captured the lead vocalist of English rock band The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger, in 1964. Bailey has fully engulfed Jagger as the main subject of the image by having him fill the entire frame and adopting a close-up head and shoulder shot. Jagger wears a fur accessory adding extra interest and texture into the image in addition to framing the model’s face. The model creates direct eye contact with the viewer creating a relationship between the two and catching their attention. A house style convention used throughout Bailey’s is a monochrome filter which thus accentuates tonal highlights and shadows. It is leaves no distracts sometimes caused by colour photography as well as making Bailey’s work recognisable and iconic in the photography industry. Taking this into consideration, I aim to experiment with monochrome photography as well as close-up compositions, focusing on the intricate details within the model’s face.
ANGUS MCBEAN
Angus Mcbean is one of the most significant portrait British photographers of the twentieth century. Before dying in June 1990 in Ipswich, Mcbean was famous for producing surrealist portraits in the 1930’s and photographing mainstream dance and musical figures such as Audrey Hepburn and Margot Fonteyn. However the highlight of his career was photographing the main image of The Beatles first album ‘Please Please Me’ album cover in the 1960’s.
The photograph below features English ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn in 1951. Through composition, McBean has cleverly created a strong sense of depth and perspective by positing the main subject Fonteyn in the background and a pair of ballet legs in the foreground. Fonteyn centred within the frame dressed in all black sits in between the legs which frames her silhouette. There are very strong tonal contrasts across the image where the main subject is well lit and has a surrounding soft glow due to artificial studio lighting. Fonteyn is making looking directly down the lens making eye contact with the viewer in a sophisticated and classy pose. The added ballet dancer legs in the foreground add to the context of the image and background information about the main subject. From this image I will take inspiration from the sharp lighting used thus creating dramatic shadows and highlighting the model, increasing her importance and dominance.
Bibliography:
- http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05044/david-bailey
- http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06543/angus-mcbean
Leave a comment