subscribe (^03303331113) Iwww.amateurphotographer.co.ukI 18 April 2020 27
CECIL BEATON
‘I gotassignedtoworkwithhimon
oneofhislastjobs.Itwasenjoyable,
hestillhada goodeye’
to get picked up in the ’60s by the
whole [Mick] Jagger, [Keith]
Richards, Andy Warhol crowd. He
was great friends with David
Hockney and he was always looking
for something new in the arts and
responding to it. His sort of
photographic index is a roll call of
the 20th century. There’s so few
people that escaped his lens, so he
was a very, very important figure.’
What reaction do you hope the
exhibition gets?
‘I’m very keen that it’s an exhibition
that’s really a joy for people to come
and see. I don’t want them to think
awfully hard. I think that exhibitions
that really make people have to
work very, very hard to understand
them... there is a place for them, but
you can’t do that with Beaton – he’s
too much fun.’
JOHN SWANNELL
Was Cecil Beaton an inspiration for your photography?
‘He was. If you think of all of the photographers in the 20th
century, there’s Bill Brandt, David Bailey and Cecil Beaton. I
think those three are probably – I always think of them as the
three Bs; Beaton, Bailey and Brandt – the best
photographers and they’re completely different. Bailey
changed fashion in the ’60s completely and basically took
over from Cecil Beaton.
‘Cecil Beaton was very into fashion right up to the end of
the ’60s, mainly because of My Fair Lady, which he won an
[Academy] award for, but he did a lot of pictures during the
war. He was a strange photographer because he was
almost like an amateur photographer, which is a funny thing
to say, but his pictures were sort of on the verge of being
amateur, but there was something about his pictures that
nobody else had.
‘I spoke to the Queen Mother about him [Beaton] when I
photographed her 100th birthday and brought him up; she
adored him and she said he was one of her favourite
photographers. But, he was lucky because when
photographing the Royal Family in those days they wore
beautiful long dresses, tiaras, jewellery and stuff and today,
when I photograph The Queen, it’s twinset and pearls. It’s not
quite the same [level of] romance whereas Beaton had it all
in front of him to do, so he was very lucky in that way, and
that’s why his pictures look so romantic.’
What was your experience of meeting and working
with Beaton?
‘I was one of six assistants at Vogue Studios years ago,
when I was about 19, and I got assigned to work with him.
It was one of his last jobs actually; he’d kind of lost it by this
time and wasn’t sure about looking through cameras any
more even. But it was enjoyable; he still had a good eye.
When I met him, because I was on the list to work with him
that day, I was in the loo having a pee and he came in and
started having a pee next to me. I said, “Mr. Beaton, I’m
working with you today”, and he said, “Well, it’s not the kind
of place for an introduction is it, my boy?” I said, “No, you’re
right,” and then he laughed out loud – it was quite funny. So
that was my introduction to Cecil Beaton. I literally only
worked with him that once.’
What do you think Cecil Beaton’s legacy is?
‘He was just one of the greatest, most distinguished and
most stylish English photographers that has come out of
Great Britain. He’s up there with the best of them. He
was always so stylish. He dressed immaculately and was a
bit of a dandy really.’
Beaton at Sandwich, in the early 1920s
John Swannell is a leading fashion, beauty and
portrait photographer. He started his career, aged 16,
in the Vogue Studios before assisting David Bailey
and then setting up his own studio. He has worked
for magazines such as Vogue, Harpers & Queen, The
Sunday Times and Tatler and is also well known for his
portraits of the Royal Family. He has also shot famous
film stars, musicians and politicians. He has had 13
books of his work published so far. To see more of his
work go to http://www.johnswannell.com
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