David Bailey, English Photographer, English, Photographer, Vogue, Bailey

David Bailey, Self Portrait

I was born in 1961 and for as long as I can remember, I have followed David Bailey’s work. He has been a huge influence on me – the way that I shoot, the way I expose my shots and some might argue – the way that I am! The photograph in this post is a self portrait that David Bailey did and I have never published a photograph on my web site belonging to someone else. So, if I am told to remove it, I will do so immediately out of respect to (in my humble opinion) the greatest photographer of all time. He has a potty mouth and that suits me just fine.

He is a source of many fantastic photography and life quotes. Many photographers “play” with light but I always thought that Bailey “plays” with “dark”. Throughout his career he has made fantastic use of shadows and I in turn have always been influenced by that. I get that it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it works for me. I have never met Bailey and in many ways, I hope that I don’t, but it would be an honour to meet this icon of my industry.

“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.” ~ David Bailey

“Anybody can be a great photographer if they zoom in enough on what they love” ~ David Bailey

“Being Trendy is dangerous. I’ve never been trendy, which is why I’ve never really fallen out of favour.” ~ David Bailey

“I was surrounded by strong women, so it had never occurred to me that women were anything other than equal to men.” ~ David Bailey

“I always go for simplicity” ~ David Bailey

 

 

I am entering my 43rd year as a professional photographer. I am not very good at maintaining a blog, but over the course of the next few weeks I will highlight the photographers, in detail, who have influenced me and why.

They include: David Bailey, Brian Duffy, Terence Donovan, Tony Armstrong Jones (Earl of Snowdon), Man Ray and Ansel Adams. The only one that is still alive is the first one and he, David Bailey, and Brian Duffy are/were major influences on my “style” (The way I expose) and, indeed, who I am today.

More soon.

J