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Background information
"Cecil BEATON (1904-1980) liked to present himself as the last dandy of the British Empire: sophisticated and refined, a 'fanatical aesthete', to whom elegance and style were as important as the perfectly displayed pose of the idler. At the same time, he was restlessly active - for example, as a theater designer and film exhibitor, passionate gardener and master of ceremonies for high society and London's noble bohemians. However, he became world famous as a fashion and society photographer.
The secret of his immense success probably lies in the fact that he succeeded in reflecting the history and the faces of an entire era in his pictures. The English royal family, whose court photographer he was, and the New York underground, where he became Andy Warhol's role model, mark out the social extremes between which he moved seemingly effortlessly.
Content
"The out-of-print photography volume 'The Essential Cecil Beaton. Photographs 1920-1970' provides insight into the sheer inexhaustible creativity of this multi-talented photographer through 265 outstanding pictorial examples - from his early schoolboy photos in the upper-middle-class parental home to portraits from the 'Swinging London' of the late 1970s. The extensive image section is offset with statements by Cecil Beaton on photography.
The volume opens with the essay 'Beaton and His Beauties' by David Alan Mellor, Professor of Art History at the University of Sussex. Philippe Garner, a specialist in 20th-century photography, design and art at Christie's, describes Beaton's life and career in his text entitled 'Instinctively Stylish - Cecil Beaton as Fashion Photographer'. The work is a 'must-have' for anyone interested in fashion, photography, contemporary history, and for an extraordinary man who set standards with his brilliant photographic work." (slightly adapted text, © H.-G. v. Zydowitz)
Additional information
The opulent monograph, 'The Essential Cecil Beaton' was first published in 1994; it was and is now out of print again from the publisher.