Cecil Beaton

I've always had a bit of an eye and an interest in the work of the photographer - I would say celebrity photographer but that would get mixed up in the connotations of the contemporary paparazzi media lead photographer capturing anything and everything that could never really be considered art. I have a total adoration for the work of David Bailey and while i'd heard of the name "Cecil Beaton" in passing, it hasn't been until reading the novel "Silk" by Penny Jordan in which he makes many an appearance, that I even took to sticking his name in Google. And my - I wish i'd done so before!

Capturing glamour, style and the celebrity, Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) is considered one of Britain's most influential and celebrated photographers even in turn influencing the work of artists like David Bailey. Across the five decades of his work from the 1920s onwards, he captured the faces, the fashions and the places of the then modern world - from Marilyn Monroe to the wedding photographs of Duke and Duchess of Windsor and even as an official WW2 war photographer.

And here is just such a small sample of his amazing, amazing work;

Marilyn Monroe

Capturing for Vogue the model Vionnet [1937]

Audrey

The Queen photographed in 1968 in her White Drawing Room - Buckingham Palace.

Marlene Dietrich 1935


Originalpicture lost to cyberspace

Vogue shoot for Charles James Dresses 1948

Lillian Gish 1930's

His work seems to offer something stylish yet imitate. Now I just need to hunt out books and copies of his work because they are utterly gorgeous more so the black and white ones!

Lovely!

I want to say a massive heartfelt thank you for all you that left me messages on my last post - it means a lot. I'm getting there slowly - thank you all once again!