"Set in the wood-panelled salon of a Manhattan antiques company, the staging of this conversation piece of eight models in Charles James's jewel-coloured ball gowns remains one of Beaton's most elegant postwar fashion photographs. The embodiment of the New Look from Paris, it also underscored an American sensibility for old world charm and sophistication' Photograph: The Conde Nast Archive, New York/NPG, London"
"Technological advancements in colour reproduction had been led by Conde Nast Publications at its state-of-the art printing works outside New York. Now at the cutting edge, Vogue was ideally placed to move into another golden era. Beaton, who could often struggle with the naturalistic approach, made some of his most impressive fashion photographs in colour, usually within a rigidly formal framework' Photograph: The Conde Nast Archive, New York"
Cecil Beaton influenced 20th-century British and American creative culture as a fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist, writer and photographer. He developed a distinctive photographic style that combined Edwardian staged portraiture, European surrealism and American modernism filtered through an English sensibility. Advances in colour reproduction at Conde Nast enabled Beaton to produce formal, colour fashion photographs aligned with the New Look and an American taste for old-world elegance. A Manhattan-staged portrait of eight Charles James gowns exemplifies his postwar fashion imagery. Portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Francis Bacon, Elizabeth Taylor, Salvador Dali and Marlon Brando demonstrate his range. The exhibition is curated by Robin Muir.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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