David Bailey

In his early days people asked why his name was just posted as Bailey, This is because on all of his images they just printed Bailey and never his fully name. He wanted to change his name to Bailey Bailey just to be unusual and to stand out. 

When he use to shoot someone he use to photograph them as they entered the door, if they were in a mad mood he used to encourage that to get the best form the image. He just wants to capture their personality and images of the moment. Bailey does have a style but in the documentary he mentions that he don’t want a style, he just wants to concentrate on being minimal and that’s it. which in away is a style in its self.  Bailey is dyslexic and people told him that he was dumb and wouldn’t get anywhere but most people that are dyslexic are mainly visual learners. Bailey preferred using a white background and this really worked for most of his images, it created a blank canvas in away so sole focus was on the model, it also simplified the image for the viewer and re enforced the minimalist aspect to the image, but he also like to shoot on location, providing versatility in his work.

Whilst Bailey worked for vogue it was mainly about capturing and emphasising sexuality which sells products and a style, which lead him to explore and develop a style that fitted in with the Vogue concept, however, sometimes Vogue said he couldn’t do something which he had to stick by. As you can see the image is very minimalistic shoot against a white background, which enhances the features of the model and gives a greater depth to the colour that the model is wearing, the minimal background also enhance shapes, volume and form. the text also complements the image making it look like the text is placed in the background, pushing the model in to the foreground. 

In contrast to the above image this was taken on location in 1961 east end of London. Unlike his standard fashion shots agains a white background this is a fashion/ documentary image. The sole focus is not on the model in this clinical environment which in my opinion is less alienating for the viewer or a potential customer because it puts the model in a everyday situation which makes the idea accessible to the majority.

My favourite image of the two is the black and white one because it has more of a visual narrative where the Vogue cover is quite stark and clinical and also feels like it is for a suited to specific groups of people, e.g. The wealthy. Both images demonstrate formal elements for example rule of thirds, colour and monochrome tonal range, texture, however one has studio lights creating a sharp, saturated and stark image where as the monochrome image uses natural day light allowing the image to create a wide tonal range