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| David Bailey |
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| An image from the 'Rankin and Bailey Down Under' exhibition by David Bailey |
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What first made you curious
about photography?
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| When I was a child my mother
gave me a box brownie (an
old-style camera) and I
became fascinated by the
chemical process that meant
you could put a piece of paper
in some chemicals and an
image would come out of it.
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| Why do you think your photography has endured? |
| I am never happy with what I have done as I am always trying
to make it better. It is that search for perfection that keeps me
moving on to the next project. But I think that I always tried to
do pictures that don't date. I go for simplicity.
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| Is that why you have diversified so much
into other genres?
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| In a way, one thing feeds off the other. You have to be a great
thief to be a good photographer, as you are stealing all the time
from life. I was in Cuba recently and I did some portraits of
ordinary people. They were just flower sellers in Cuba.
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| Are they very different to the famous people you
have photographed?
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| Well, they are easy, as they don't have all the pre-conceived
ideas of what they should look like.You treat each person as an
individual and you adapt to who you're photographing. It's their
personality that I want, not mine.
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| Would you miss London if you moved away? |
| Oh yes. London has been a great influence on me. I think it is the
greatest city in the world. It is so steeped in history and magic
and I like the humour that Londoners and British people have.
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| Do you have any advice for aspiring photographers? |
| Yes, don't be scared of failure. If you are taking a portrait picture
then all you can hope is to use your personality in the process
to assist the subject in putting their personality in the picture.
But they are the most important things in the studio, not me.
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