David Bailey, considered “Britan’s greatest living portrait photographer who reinvented and revolutionised fashion photography” Through-out Baileys life time he has been credited enough to photograph the most astonishing images of people over the past 5 decades. Since doing a shoot with Jean Shrimpton and Penelope Tree, his work well and truly rose to fame instantly, his work is stated to “never fails to impress”. He has had the oppurtunity to photograph people such as The Kray Twins, The Rolling Stones, Kate Moss and many, many others. A lot of his work is printed in black and white ink; this is how people would of known these images would be related to David Bailey in some way, this is because he used to always publish his work in black and white. Bailey was first classed as a photographer in 1960 as he was just working as a photographic assistant up until then. This was just before he was contracted as a fashion photographer by the British Vogue Magazine later that year. A year later, 1961, Bailey did a shoot with Jean Shrimpton, Bailey did this shoot over in New York City, the style for this shoot was themed “Young and Fresh”. The images Bailey captured are really unique images. He really captures a mood with these images and shows how fashion photography was a lot different back then compared to what it is now in this century, I like how his photographs portray the portrait of the model but he still manages to make the clothing the main subject of the image.
Craig McDean is a British male fashion photographer who originated from a small town near greater Manchester called Middlewich, As his photography ended up being super successful he is now rising to fame over in New York City with his spouse Tabitha Simmons who is a fashion designer. Craig McDean is also an author as well as a fashion photographer, he worked on a book called “Amber Guinevere and Kate photographer by Craig McDean 1993-2005” This book is written about the famous models who worked and photographed in the past. McDean is mainly known for his astonishing fashion imagery and his portraiture. He found his interest in fashion photography through shooting images with his friends in the north of England. McDeans’ first ever major assignment was with the fashion magazine “i-D” and “The Face” in 1999. As he has now rose to fame and his name has been has been published for world wide brands such as Gucci, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani and many others. He also contributes to big magazine brands such as American, British, French and Italian Vogue’s.
Comparing the work of David Bailey and Craig McDean, McDeans work is more modernised; he also prefers to work with colour in his work, Bailey and McDean share. Some comparisons with one another within their work. They both worked with well known model celebrities because they both knew it would catch more peoples attention because the public recognise the faces. They also both liked to pick young models to wear the garments, the models are going to have more of an impact on selling these garments because the fashion industry is linked to a younger generation, younger individuals pay more interest to fashion adverts and they like to dress within their generation. My personal opinion is that I prefer McDeans work, this is because his work is mainly focused in my generation and I love the way he is able to portray the models in each image he captures. I like how his work is in colour also, I think when an image is printed in colour it gives it more feelings behind it and you can connect with the image a lot more and it tells you more of a story. Both of the images I am comparing where captured for world famous designer fashion magazines, Bailey did his shoot for British Vogue in New York and McDean did his shoot of Rihanna for the Dior Magazine in New York also. McDeans image show show more of a bright, stylish way of fashion as Baileys images all have quiet a low exposure and are all developed with a dark effect.
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