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David Bailey unveils striking pictures for new exhibition
Alistair Foster, Showbusiness Correspondent1 Jun 2010
He is best know for his portraits of some of the most famous and beautiful people in the world.
But the latest exhibition by David Bailey, titled Now, features striking still life arrangements of skulls and flowers. The 72-year-old says the 13 pictures depict life and death and are shot in his "simple and direct" style.
As a fashion photographer for Vogue, he helped shape the "Swinging London" of the Sixties and was romantically involved with many of the supermodels he photographed. He also produced album covers for the Rolling Stones and Marianne Faithfull as well as paintings, sculptures and TV commercials.
Of his latest exhibition, at Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair, Bailey said: "It sounds a bit poncey, but flowers are about life and beauty. Skulls are about death. Skulls are the ultimate sculptures - nature's sculptures. Flowers are a symbol of civilisation and represent man's imagination. Previously people had only grown things to eat. It was a great moment when people would grow things for their beauty and not their function. I've been doing these sorts of shots for 30 years. I do everything from painting to sculpture and always have done. I shoot these still lifes the same way I shoot people."
The work will draw comparisons with Damien Hirst, who created a £50million diamond-encrusted skull in 2007 - skulls also feature in his The Virgin Mother and The Inescapable Truth.
Bailey has no plans to slow down. He has just returned from Afghanistan where he took pictures for a book on the British military. He said: "I don't think I'll be able to stop."
The exhibition runs from June 10 until July 2.
Reader views (1)
It's great to read that he doesn't think he'll ever stop, because David Bailey still outshoots the rest of the lot. True, much of his work isn't striking in the OTT sense, but then it never really was. Simple, direct... it communicates the subject matter much better than most. That said... the still life effort seems to be trying too hard. Even though he's obviously stuck to his simple approach. It would, however, make for great posters... the sort seen on boutique walls in the wilder parts of the West End.
- Wayne, Fredericton, Canada, 23/11/2010 03:59
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