David Bailey
b. 1938
David Bailey, (born January 2, 1938, London, England), British photographer and director known for his advertising, celebrity, and fashion photographs. David Bailey, whose career in photography would eventually bring him into contact with the high reaches of British society, came from a working-class East London background. Educated in London, he left school at a young age, worked at a series of menial jobs, and served with the Royal Air Force in Malaysia in 1957–58. Having been interested from his youth in painting and photography, in 1959 he apprenticed at the John French Studio, where he became involved in fashion photography. In 1960 he began to photograph for British Vogue, where he worked for about 15 years, first on staff and later as a freelancer. He also freelanced for other magazines and newspapers. Bailey’s fashion work and celebrity portraiture, characterized by stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting effects, transformed British fashion and celebrity photography from chic but reserved stylization to something more youthful and direct. His work reflects the 1960s British cultural trend of breaking down antiquated and rigid class barriers by injecting a working-class…
Films