Talk

David Bailey

Festival of Ideas

Sunday 9 September 2018 5 - 6pm

The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts

£20, £12 concessions.

Priority booking for Friends of the RA opens on Thursday 14 June 2018 at 10am. Booking opens to the public on Tuesday 19 June at 10am.

Renowned British portrait photographer David Bailey joins RA Artistic Director Tim Marlow to discuss his creative process, how it has evolved over half a century, his experience of getting older and the art world today.

After living through the Blitz, David Bailey left school at 15 and was conscripted to the Royal Air Force in 1956. While posted in Singapore he bought his first camera and after seeing Cartier Bresson’s photograph, Kashmir, was inspired to become a photographer. Only 10 years later he had successfully published David Bailey’s Box of Pin-Ups, which is now seen as defining an era and as having shaped the future of photography.

Bailey has been recognised internationally for his skills as a filmmaker, and won a Emmy for directing the “Sophisticated Lady” commercial for the American Cancer Society in 1990. His first landmark exhibition, SNAP!, was held in 1971 at the National Portrait Gallery, London, where he featured alongside the works by David Hockney and Gerald Scarfe. Since, he has exhibited worldwide and has produced some of the most famous photographic portraits of the last six decades. He has travelled extensively, and although best-known for his fashion and portraiture, his interests are varied, extending beyond photography to TV commercials, film, painting and sculpture.

In this talk, Bailey discusses his creative practice throughout the decades, his dislike for nostalgia and his thoughts on the world of art today.

This talk will be followed by a Q&A.

£20, £12 concessions.

Priority booking for Friends of the RA opens on Thursday 14 June 2018 at 10am. Booking opens to the public on Tuesday 19 June at 10am.