David Bailey

David Royston Bailey (born 2 January 1938) is an English photographer and director, most widely known for his fashion photography and portraiture, and role in shaping the image of the Swinging Sixties.

David Bailey was born at Whipps Cross University Hospital, Leytonstone, to Herbert Bailey, a tailor's cutter, and his wife Gladys, a machinist.

From the age of three he lived in East Ham.

Bailey developed a love of natural history, and this led him into photography.

As he had undiagnosed dyslexia, he experienced problems at school.

He attended a private school, Clark's College in Ilford, where he says they taught him less than the more basic council school.

As well as dyslexia he also has the motor skill disorder dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder).

In one school year, he claims he only attended 33 times.

He left school on his fifteenth birthday, to become a copy boy at the Fleet Street offices of the Yorkshire Post.

He raced through a series of dead end jobs, before his call up for national service in 1956, serving with the Royal Air Force in Singapore in 1957.

The appropriation of his trumpet forced him to consider other creative outlets, and he bought a Rolleiflex camera.

He was demobbed in August 1958, and determined to pursue a career in photography, he bought a Canon rangefinder camera.

Unable to obtain a place at the London College of Printing because of his school record, he became a second assistant to David Ollins, in Charlotte Mews.

He earned £3 10s (£3.50) a week, and acted as studio dogsbody.

He was delighted to be called to an interview with photographer John French.

In 1959, Bailey became a photographic assistant at the John French studio, and in May 1960, he was a photographer for John Cole's Studio Five, before being contracted as a fashion photographer for British Vogue magazine later that year.

He also undertook a large amount of freelance work.

Along with Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, Bailey captured and helped create the 'Swinging London' of the 1960s: a culture of fashion and celebrity chic.

The three photographers socialised with actors, musicians and royalty, and found themselves elevated to celebrity status.

Together, they were the first real celebrity photographers, named by Norman Parkinson "the Black Trinity".

The "Swinging London" scene was aptly reflected in his Box of Pin-Ups (1964): a box of poster-prints of 1960s celebrities including Terence Stamp, The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, P. J. Proby, Cecil Beaton, Rudolf Nureyev and East End gangsters, the Kray twins.

The Box was an unusual and unique commercial release.

It reflected the changing status of the photographer that one could sell a collection of prints in this way.

Strong objection to the presence of the Krays by fellow photographer, Lord Snowdon, was the major reason no American edition of the "Box" was released, and that a second British edition was not issued.

The record sale for a copy of 'Box of Pin-Ups' is reported as "north of £20,000".

At Vogue Bailey was shooting covers within months, and, at the height of his productivity, he shot 800 pages of Vogue editorial in one year.

Penelope Tree, a former girlfriend, described him as "the king lion on the Savannah: incredibly attractive, with a dangerous vibe. He was the electricity, the brightest, most powerful, most talented, most energetic force at the magazine".

American Vogue's creative director Grace Coddington, then a model herself, said "It was the Sixties, it was a raving time, and Bailey was unbelievably good-looking. He was everything that you wanted him to be – like the Beatles but accessible – and when he went on the market everyone went in. We were all killing ourselves to be his model, although he hooked up with Jean Shrimpton pretty quickly".

Of model Jean Shrimpton, Bailey said: "She was magic and the camera loved her too. In a way she was the cheapest model in the world – you only needed to shoot half a roll of film and then you had it. She had the knack of having her hand in the right place, she knew where the light was, she was just a natural."

The film Blowup (1966), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, depicts the life of a London fashion photographer who is played by David Hemmings, whose character was inspired by Bailey.

Since 1966, Bailey has also directed several television commercials and documentaries.

From 1968 to 1971 he directed and produced TV documentaries titled Beaton, Warhol and Visconti.

As well as fashion photography, Bailey photographed album sleeve art for musicians including The Rolling Stones and Marianne Faithfull.

Bailey was hired in 1970 by Island Records' Chris Blackwell to shoot publicity photos of Cat Stevens for his upcoming album Tea for the Tillerman.

Stevens, who is now known as Yusuf Islam maintains that he disliked having his photo on the cover of his albums, as had previously been the case, although he allowed Bailey's photographs to be placed on the inner sleeve of the album.

In 1972, rock singer Alice Cooper was photographed by Bailey for Vogue magazine, almost naked apart from a snake.

Cooper used Bailey the following year to shoot for the group's chart topping Billion Dollar Babies album.

The shoot included a baby wearing shocking eye makeup and, supposedly, one billion dollars in cash requiring the shoot to be under armed guard.

In 1976, Bailey published Ritz Newspaper together with David Litchfield.

In 1985, Bailey was photographing stars at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium.