David Bailey

In 1965, portrait and fashion photographer David Bailey released his groundbreaking book Box Of Pin-Ups, securing him as the hip tastemaker for 1960s London cool. With Mick Jagger his best man at his wedding to Catherine Deneuve, Bailey was also the inspiration for the classic movie Blow-Up. From the Swinging ’60s to the present day, Bailey has never stopped pushing the boundaries of his signature in-your-face portraiture and is widely regarded as one of the great postwar photographers.

This big book of Bailey is the culmination of an incredible career, the result of two years’ worth of research into his personal archives. Through penetrating pictures of the beautiful and the notorious, the idolized and the powerful, friends and family, writers, artists, and fellow photographers, Bailey presents a sweeping cultural history of the last 60 years. Featured subjects include Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, Kate Moss, Nelson Mandela, Francis Bacon, Zaha Hadid, the Rolling Stones, Jack Nicholson, Brigitte Bardot, Margaret Thatcher, and hundreds more.

As his friend Damien Hirst writes in the foreword: “He’s the master of his art and he’s created a mind-blowing visual language.” Additional text includes a three-part essay on Bailey’s portraiture by noted photography critic Francis Hodgson.
 
This Art Edition comes with a signed print of Bailey’s iconic shot of John and Paul, part of the original Box Of Pin-Ups, which cemented Bailey’s reputation as a probing portraitist and serious artist. The two Beatles look pensive and somewhat guarded, far from their lovable “mop top” image, but the unique bond between these two songwriting geniuses has never been more powerfully conveyed.

Limited to a total of 3,000 numbered and signed copies, each edition comes with a bookstand designed by Marc Newson and a set of four book jackets featuring John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Jean Shrimpton, Mick Jagger, and Andy Warhol.
 
This Art Edition (No. 1–75) comes with the signed print John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 1965.

Also available as three other Art Editions of 75 copies each, with alternative signed prints, and as a signed Collector’s Edition of 2,700 copies (No. 301–3,000).

The artist: London-born David Bailey (b. 1938) is widely acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of contemporary photography, having shot some of the most iconic portraits of the last six decades. Bailey’s early work helped both define and capture 1960s London, when he made stars of a new generation of models, including Jean Shrimpton and Penelope Tree. Bailey channeled the energy of London’s informal street culture to create a new style of casual coolness. Drawing inspiration from Modernism, he injected movement and immediacy into his work by using a very direct, cropped perspective. Bailey’s interests extend to commercials, film, painting, and sculpture.

The designer of the bookstand: Born in Sydney, Australia, Marc Newson studied jewelry and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts before moving to Tokyo and Paris. Now living and working in the UK, Newson has become one of the world’s most accomplished designers. He has forged innovative partnerships with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Ferrari and Apple. He is the only designer represented by Gagosian, and his work is present in the collection of over 40 museums worldwide.

The author: Francis Hodgson is Professor in the Culture of Photography at the University of Brighton, U.K. For many years until 2015, he was the critic for The Financial Times and former head of photographs at Sotheby’s. In 2017, Hodgson received the J. Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society, given for photography criticism.

The editor: Benedikt Taschen is the legendary founder of TASCHEN, a leading publishing house that has released some of the most coveted visual books in the world. Born in Cologne, Germany, he has resided in Los Angeles for over two decades. Likening their work to that of cultural archaeologists, TASCHEN transforms subjects that are larger than life into at-hand works of art. Benedikt Taschen is responsible for publishing career-defining books with Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, and David Hockney, to name just a few. Audacious in its publishing choices, polished to a shine in its production values, and baroque in presentation, a TASCHEN book defies all expectations.