David Bailey:- Photographer from the East End of London!

If you asked a group of people many unrelated to photographers and photography to name a photographer "Bailey" is the likely answer.

His output is outstanding - to many he was the sixties image revolution.

His style often simple just came out the page at you. And he was a massive advocate of 35mm cameras when they were often considered toys by magazines and picture editors.

Ofcourse he is much more than this - but for me it was his simple highlight white background images that I admired. Because he was part of the "Olympus" set of photographers he became well known within their advertising at the time v- although he had done Pentax prior to that I seem to remember. He broke boundries in photography and brought the "bright young things" of the sixties into the public eye. He cares little for self publicity he is "Bailey" and that's it.

I often "copy" Bailey's style and continue to admire his work. I will never be that good - but then again there's only one Bailey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The simple white highkey background - strong B & W image contrast is a popular Bailey technique. Here actor Osman gets my version of the style!!

I prefer not to skin smooth an image like this - and that add's to the period feel, as hardly an image gets used in editorial without it!!

The lighting is much more even than often used for male subjects, with two lights one each side of the camera.