24 18 April 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
B
ack in the 1920s ‘Bright
Young Things’ was a
nickname given by the
tabloid press of the
time to a select band of bohemian
young aristocrats and socialites in
London. Amongst their number
was an aspiring, self-taught,
photographer called Cecil Beaton,
who was mixing with the likes of
actress Tallulah Bankhead, artist
Rex Whistler, poet Edith Sitwell,
composer William Walton and
many others. Beaton was training
his lens on many of them, which
resulted in a series of portraits
from the golden period between the
two World Wars.
Almost a century after his first
photograph was published in
Vogue, in 1924, over 130 of Beaton’s
images from this glamorous and
stylish era feature in a new
exhibition – Cecil Beaton’s Bright
Young Things – planned at theBeaton’s
The early photographic work
of the legendary Cecil Beaton
features in an exhibition
planned for the National Portrait
G a l l e r y. Steve Fairclough
discovers more
Bright
Yo u ng
Things
CECIL BEATON
ALL IMAGES © CECIL BEATON STUDIO ARCHIVE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED
National Portrait Gallery, London.
The exhibition also features
paintings by Beaton’s friends from
that period and other ephemera,
such as Beaton’s first ever camera,
his magazines, scrapbooks, book
jackets and letters.
To discover more about the
exhibition AP spoke to its curator,
Robin Muir, who has spent several
years tracking down rarely seen
Beaton photographs to include
within the show. We also spoke to
three major British photographers- John Swannell, Rankin and Jason
Bell – to get an insight into the
influence of Beaton, which endures
40 years after his death.
Above: The Bright Young
Things at Wilsford, 1927Above left: Cecil Beaton by
Paul Tanqueray, 1937. National
Portrait Gallery, London© ESTATE OF PAUL TANQUERAY