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I've many favourite photographers whose work spans several generations and a variety of styles from Cecil Beaton and Angus McBean via Karsh of Ottawa to Annie Leibovitz and Snowdon, an artist whose work (including many stunning portraits) is currently celebrated in a retrospective show at Chris Beetles Gallery in London.
In addition to pictures of Snowdon's ex-wife and other famous royals, are some fascinating character studies such as the young Tom Stoppard (above) photographed in 1967 - when he was still viewed as revolutionary dramatist - trying to ride a bike without wheels; Laurence Olivier - with manic eyes and rictus grin - as Archie Rice, the eponymous hero of John Osborne's The Entertainer…
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…J R R Tolkien, the Lord and Master of Middle-earth, snugly nestled - hobbit-like - among the gnarled tree-roots in a wood near his home in Bournemouth, the year before his death...
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...and Ralph Richardson - eccentrically dressed in overcoat and scarf as if he has just arrived or is about to pop off - and obviously caught in mid anecdote: a whimsical portrait that looks contemporary yet, at the same time, harks back to the age of the Victorian cart de visite and a likeness, perhaps, of a Liberal politician or, maybe, a wealthy west country farmer...
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There too many brilliant Snowdon photographs on show to permit the selecting of favourites, but an energised seventy-year-old Noel Coward in a pigeon-clouded Trafalgar Square is clearly so full of the joy of life that it makes me smile…
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…while a Marlene Dietrich at the Café de Paris’ in London in 1955, with a drifting cigarette smoke spectre is the epitome of poise and icy sophistication…
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…and Snowdon’s most recent - and cruelly artful - portrait of Baroness Thatcher, the failing former Prime Minister, uncharacteristically blowing us a kiss in 2004 is an image to raise a multitude of expected and unexpected responses ranging from contempt to compassion.
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The exhibition, Snowdon, continues at Chris Beetles Gallery until 14th October. Also on show: Mervyn Peake: The Man And His Work, about which I shall blog another blog on another day...
[Images: © Snowdon]
2 comments:
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I've never seen that picture of Noel Coward before - it's enchanting... in stark contrast to the picture of Mrs T which is one of the most disturbing images I have seen in a while.
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