David Bailey is an English fashion and portrait photographer. He developed a love of natural history and this led him into photography. Also he has written and produced countless books, directed films, arranged photographic shows and made commercials. He wasn't on the list and seemed an even dimmer possibility after he failed early efforts to take snapshots with the family's brownie camera. Instead he pretty much did anything and everything else to make money like carpet salesman, tallyman, shoe salesman, window dresser. It was only after being posted to Singapore while in the British royal air force that David started getting more immersed in the field of photography. He discovered the work of Henri Bresson which greatly inspired him and started voraciously poring through copies of life and various American photo journals. The public seemed more interested in his colorful exploits than in his photography it's his work which really speaks for itself and withstands the test of time. In the past he's cited picasso as being his greatest inspiration. In the past fourty years he has held steadfast to the way in which he take pictures in black and white, minimalist, very graphic with high contrasts between lighter values and darker tones and shot on a variety of formats. He developed a interest in painting and had his work exhibited and he always went to a private school. David is very dynamic and weird but he is very inspirational and famous around the world and lots of people want to work with him.
Born: January 2nd 1938
Age: 78
Place of birth: London
Age: 78
Place of birth: London
"You could become a boxer, a car thief, or maybe a musician."
"I was smitten, and gradually the prospect of becoming a photographer became less remote, perhaps even attainable."
My favourite picture
This picture has an even amount of positive and negative space distribution as we can see the colours black and white complementing each other. The lady's dress is black which is the same colour of the wall but there is a splash of white coming from her skin. David has used slower shutter speed to catch the motion of the women as she flips her hair which adds the element of excitement and motion of the hair. Also her right arm is bent which can add a portion of three dimension which contributes to the use of levels. This image stands out because unlike his other photos where the eyes of the subjects are the central focus but in this portrait they are staring right out at the audience.
My attempt
In this picture the background is white like David does with his pictures and it was really easy doing this because you have to put the brightness of the light as high as it goes on the umbrella and softbox so the picture gets overexposed and the shutter speed in this case had to be slow because you want a lot of light to come in and then you have to use photoshop and change the effect to black and white. Another reason that this picture is inspired by his work is that the backdrop was white so it helped me have the background white and when you look at the persons eye it creates emotion which is the main aspect in portrait photography. As well as this you can see dark shadows in her eye and they are really dark near the eye area and some of the shadows are only there because they are the reflection from the hair which is going on the face. The light that was used in this picture was the umbrella and softbox which was direct light and some of the backdrop is visible at the bottom and you can see the detail in her face on her forehead which is her spots and on the nose which is the grease. Also there are dominant lines in this image which are curved lines on the persons shoulders to their head and they are thick which indicates movement of the person when the picture was being taken.