Reception for the Artist: Tuesday 31 October

Faggionato Fine Art is pleased to announce their forthcoming exhibition by celebrated photographer David Bailey: JS NY 62. Capturing the flourishing, youthful energy of the early 60s, this iconic series of photographs feature Jean Shrimpton as a modern Alice in an urban New York City wonderland. In this series of 27 prints, reproduced in an issue of British Vogue 1962 for a story titled ‘New York: Young Idea goes West’, Bailey pioneered a realist photographic style that is still resonant today. Breaking with previous rules for portraits and fashion in photography, he embraces the immediacy of street life and creates a revolution of casual coolness. Simple and dramatic in style, these photographs depict an informality and spontaneity of gesture that was modern and innovative, defining elegant, urban-chic for a new generation. With an interest in motion that also preoccupied Modernism throughout the 20th Century, Bailey incorporates movement in his very direct, cropped views and in the angled poses of the body. Appearing almost as snapshots, the views are seemingly un-posed, inspired by the energy of the city in their brisk and hectic pace, bright light and strong contrasts. The endless clutter of signs, significant in many of the compositions, serves to highlight the chaos of the urban environment, and reveals Bailey’s perceptiveness, as he identifies an influential element in contemporary culture and in the emerging Pop Art movement. Images exploring the diversity and eccentricity of the characters and architecture of New York complement those that also feature Shrimpton, a lonely foreign figure in a new world. Whether in juxtaposition with the edginess of street-life, the emptiness of a skyscraper rooftop or the isolation of a cemetery; Shrimpton is a vestige of innocence, embodying a fragile vulnerability that became characteristic in 60s representations of the body. Drifting through downtown Manhatten, her street-cred is undermined by the large stuffed teddy bear she clutches, symbol of her naiveté and wide-eyed girlishness that can also be linked with the relative innocence of the early 60s. David Bailey will receive the Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Fashion in New York on October 30th. David Bailey was born in London in 1938 and has been at the top of his profession for over forty years. Solo exhibitions include: Birth of the Cool 1957-1969 & Contemporary Work, Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1999; Photogalerie, Berlin, 1997; The ICA, London, 1985; International Center of Photography, New York, 1984; Victoria & Albert Museum London, 1983, and the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1971. He has also produced numerous publications, from Box of Pinups (1964) to Archive Two – Locations (2003), Bailey’s Democracy (2005) and most recently including David Bailey – Havana (2006). Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10.00 am – 6.00 pm For further information and images please contact us: info@faggionato.com