David Bailey

David Royston Bailey, CBE. Was born in 1938, he is an English photographer who is regarded as one of the nation’s best. By the 1960s Bailey was contracted as a fashion photographer for British Vogue magazine.

Bailey adds drama to his photographs through his use of dynamic shaping often using his models' body parts in the composition to do this. In this photograph you can see strong tones throughout the model's hair; dark shades at the back and light points at the front.  The model's arm is positioned so that it divides the pictorial space in two creating a zigzag shape across the central part of the composition. This breaks up the photograph and adds a triangle-like shape on the left side of the image. This is then followed by placing her thumb into her hair at the same angle as the arm, to create the same shape. Although this is a portrait, Bailey has chosen to photograph the model with a landscape orientation allowing space for the arm to be positioned and create drama in the photograph.

Bailey has used black and white film, this enhances the model's features, creating strong shadows under her chin which makes her face appear slimmer and contoured; this gives her face a lot more shape and structure. The model's dress is black, with a single grey and white stripe going across the side, under her armpit. This creates balance in the photograph and it draws your attention to the white line and this adds light and structure to the photograph.

Bailey's photographic style is been hugely regarded and influential in the genre of Fashion Photography and with the wider realms of Photography. For this reason I wanted to look more closely at his work. By studying Bailey's style of photography I have learnt how to add depth and drama to my own work.