Thursday, February 26, 2009

BLOW-UP'S two davids



he was the prince of london's swinging sixties photographers. mick jagger was his best friend. the beautiful people literally littered his doorway. he was radical and in demand yet still had time to defend the rights of animals. 
italian cineaste michelangelo antonioni took this information to heart and created an essential viewing experience for anyone interested in that time, that place and photographer david bailey.
bailey (dark hair) created images that are iconic. he captured mick, marianne, twigs, tree and the shrimp. in 'blow-up' we get to peek into the heady world of a man who, when not shooting fashion, was impersonating a homeless man so as to take pictures of the inhabitants of a flop house. bailey seemed to make no distinction between someone posing in ysl or someone smoking a cigarette butt off the street. it was either all beautiful or all not.
actor david hemmings is just so good as the playful but mostly serious photographer. 'blow-up' has veruschka, jane birkin, street mimes, a murder and more.
'i thought you were in paris.' 'i am in paris.' 

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