Artist Analysis: David Bailey
“Will Smith Photographed by David Bailey”
David Bailey is a very well known professional photographer born in Leytonstone in 1938. Davids work is mainly based on portraiture, with the key concentration of light on the persons face. Throughout his career he was worked with multiple celebrities and big companies. Some of the big companies that he has worked for is British Vogue and Queen Magazine photographing celebrities such as Will Smith, The Beatles, The Rolling Stone, Johnny Depp and more. David did various other jobs before becoming a photographer this gave him the motivation to do what the loves to do, as he began freelancing for British Vogue.
The image above is of Will Smith, who was photographed by David in 1997. I believe that the use of lighting is important in this image as I believe it constructs the image. David uses the use of side lit lighting, the use of black and white which David uses creates an atmosphere on his images, I believe that his portraits are more powerful in black and white than colour. Also, the use of dark lighting on the side of Wills face is effective because it is not something you usually see in portrait images as they are usually well lighted so you can see the full face rather than just half. It is clear that Will Smith is comfortable around Bailey which is essential as it allows him to capture his models personality creating an atmosphere for his audience. I have chose this image to analyse as I believe that the way in which Will Smith is portrayed here is a contrast to how is portrayed on TV. When he has a role in a movie, he often plays the tough guy or the villain however, in this photograph, we see him pulling an almost childlike face, by him doing this, it shows us he is completely comfortable being photographed by David Bailey, showing us that the connection between model and photographer needs to be there.
This image has unusual formal elements, for example the shadowing and negative space allows you to only focus on the person in the image rather than the background, David does this in a lot of his work and I believe that it is effective. Overall I like David’s work as it is a very unique way to do portraiture photography and will take inspiration from him when I do my final project.
