w.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 14 December 2019 25

who shot

BRIAN DUFFY

He died in 2010, aged 76, from
a degenerative lung disease, only
12 months after he had picked up
a camera for the fi rst time in 30
years. Three decades previously, in
1979, Duff y famously decided to end
his photography career by burning
all his negatives. After one of his
assistants told him that the studio
was out of loo roll, it reminded
Duff y that he was, in his words,
‘senior partner in charge of the
toilet bloody paper.’
In the new book D u ff y – which
features more than 200 of his
classic images and the story of
his career in his own words – he
explains, ‘I decided to burn all my
negatives. I was doing it in the
garden, and I thought they’d burn
like wood shavings, but it’s very
diffi cult to get paper and plastic to
burn. All this bloody smoke going
up, and a neighbour phoned the fi re
brigade and the council, who came
and stopped me. I felt everything
I had to do and say in photography
had been done.’

Early days
Early in his career, Duff y
transitioned from being a
dressmaker (a useful background
for photographing fashion) to
becoming a fashion illustrator
for Harper’s Bazaar. One day, he
spotted a contact sheet on the desk
of the magazine’s art director and
after viewing it, he thought, ‘Gawd
this looks dead easy compared to
the drawing lark, I’ll give this a
whiz. Take up photography as an
easy way to make money. Just my
sort of thing – women, gadgets,
clothes... I must have a go at it.’
He then assisted portrait
and advertising photographer
Adrian Flowers – who was also
assisted by Donovan and Chris

the sixties

Right: Vogue,

Florence, Italy, 1962

Right: Kenneth

More, 1960

Far right: Sammy

Davis Jr and May

Britt, 1960