David Bailey had already left his footprints in the 1960s and translated the swinging sixties into pictures. He broke with the stiff, formal conventions of fashion photography and brought a new, raw energy into the genre. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s snapshot aesthetics, photographed Bailey models and celebrities with an informal, lively style, often in natural or urban environments. Fashion and lifestyle magazines tore around his pictures.
In the 80s, his view of the eccentric, often oversubscribed aesthetics in the fashion world. Opulence, extravagance and a mixture of high fashion and street style determined the image of this time. Bailey’s photographs capture the nature of this era masterfully: voluminous silhouettes, dramatic shoulder pads, wide belts and metallic fabrics were photographed by him with an uncompromising directness.
His portraits of personalities such as Tina Turner, Princess Diana and supermodels such as Marie Helvin, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford as well as Iman and Jerry Hall not only show the shine of pop culture and haute couture, but also the personality behind the faces. Bailey used the interplay of light and shadow to highlight textures and forms of fashion.
His style, photographing, was often raw and directly. He preferred to work with minimal make-up and natural poses to capture the essence of the model and clothing. While many fashion photographers relied on overloaded studio recordings with a soft focus in the 80s, Bailey remained loyal to his clear, high -contrast aesthetics.
Especially in his black and white photographs, he specifically rely on sharp edges and dramatic lighting to give his pictures deep. But even in color he knew how to put a trace of intensive tones of the 80s from today’s perspective.
With “Eighties” (Hardcover, 28.4 x 36.0 cm, 3.55 kg, 296 pages, 100 euros) The Taschen publishing house David Baileys 80s work sets a monument. The nostalgic point of view that has long since become a trend towards the inexperience and exuberance of this decade (of course quite a slate look that simply hides the dark sides of time) gives the photographs a new power in these times.
An artist is in the foreground who was not as a skeptical observer on the side of the side, but really let the things he took in. “The Achtzigers turned out to be magical,” he says in the foreword. On the other hand, Bailey’s inimitable feeling for the moment and its ability to stage the facade and let the reality appear behind the staging.
