David Bailey

David bailey made fashion photography sexy in the sixties. He completely revamped the fashion photography world- in the fifties, portraits and fashion magazines were quite polite with little variety. This suddenly all changed thanks to Bailey. Fashion images were bursting with life and personality, women were liberated and allowed to be sexy. Most of the iconic images you associate with the sixties are down to Bailey- he was a huge part of creating the ‘swinging London scene’ of the sixties.

Bailey’s passion is infectious. Just watching documentaries about him made me feel so excited and motivated for this project. He has the ability to make people feel sexy and confident through complimenting and encouraging them. I was watching an interview that he did with Mark Lawson and he said that the key to capturing these wonderful moments is speed. He doesn’t like the shoot to take too long as this means the model will end up looking bored and this will be reflected in the images. Spontaneity is very important to bailey and his work, he says that some of his best shots have come from when he wasn’t trying ‘too hard’ or when he has caught the model completely off guard.

Before starting this project, I had heard of David Bailey but I couldn’t believe how many iconic images he is responsible for. I absolutely love the series of photographs that he did of Twiggy. I love how his portraits can be serious and simple, whereas others capture his silliness and spontaneity as an artist. I think my favourite portrait he has done is of the queen- it is so different to every other stern image I have seen of her, he really managed to capture her personality. I don’t think I have ever seen her smile so hard!