Cecil Beaton is remembered not only for his striking portraits of celebrities and fashion editorials, but also his spectacular set and costume designs.
Born in London in 1904, Beaton received a camera at age 11 and started to photograph his family in an attempt to recreate the classic Hollywood portraits he loved. Setting up a home made backdrop, Beaton costumed and posed his mother and sisters, while his nanny taught him to how to develop film in a bath tub. He soon began shooting high society debutantes as well as designing book jackets and costumes for charity balls. A visit to New York proved successful when he was hired as a freelance photographer for Vogue, Vanity Fair and Harper's Bazaar.
Beaton's work soon began to focus on public figures. He developed a particular style in which the sitter was only a decorative part of the overall image, highlighted by unusual backgrounds made out of things like aluminum foil or papier-mâche. Beaton would capture movie stars like Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and avant-garde artists such as Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau. Queen Elizabeth herself would commission Beaton for a series of portraits in the 1930s, eventually making him the official Royal family photographer. After World War II broke out, Beaton's glamorous life faded when he was sent to document the tragic air-raid damage in London and serve as a war photographer in Africa and Asia.
After the war, Beaton started designing for theater and film. He won a Tony award in 1957 for creating sets and costumes for the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady . He also went on to win two Academy Awards for costume designing the now iconic movie musicals Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964) starring Audrey Hepburn. In 1969, his exhibition “600 Faces by Beaton, 1928-1969,”was extremely received and even included portraits of Andy Warhol and his factory superstars. Beaton's photography experienced a resurgence in popularity among the mainstream which continued until long after his death in 1980.
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary" - Cecil Beaton