‘Be daring, be different, be impractical’ Cecil Beaton wrote in his diary. The greatest English fashion and society photographer of his generation, he had a singular eye for beauty and a genius for transforming reality. Beaton used his imagination like a magic wand – as one commentator put it, ‘no one […] could scatter magic over someone like Cecil Beaton.’
‘Bright Young Things’ was the title of a recent exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery of his early career. Concentrating on his formative years, from his first photograph accepted in Vogue in 1924 it ends in 1937 with a famous party he hosted at his beloved house ‘Ashcombe’. On arrival, his friends would enter a fairytale world, where every visitor was encouraged to join Beaton in his own child-like joy in dressing up.
Looking at these remarkable photographs, I’m convinced again that I am living in the wrong 20’s, how I would love to swap the increasingly restrictive and draconian 2020’s for the 1920’s and 30’s, or at least the vision of them that Beaton creates here. It was of course, a fantasy world of his own creation: ‘Not the world as he found it, the world as he transformed it, as he wished it to be’.
He would go on to photograph the pivotal moments of the 20th Century – the Blitz (the bombing of London), the Queen’s Coronation. He would design the costumes for iconic films such as ‘Gigi’ and ‘My Fair Lady’ (winning two Oscars), and photograph pop icons such as The Rolling Stones. But for me, it’s these early photographs that capture the true essence of his work.
For anyone intrigued by Beaton’s world, I recommend the wonderful documentary ‘Love, Cecil’ – which I do!
