brian duffy essay

Isabelle Fletcher Unit Three Brian Duffy

“The Man who Shot the Sixties” – Brian Duffy and his iconic fashion

photography

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Brian Duffy was one of the first and most famous documentary-style fashion photographers

from the 1960s; along with David Bailey and Terence Donovan, they created the iconic

“Swinging Sixties” images. An example of one of Duffy’s most famous works was the 1973

David Bowie ‘Aladin Sane’ cover. So how did Duffy’s work become so influential and what

inspired him to form a career in photography?

Together, Duffy, Donovan and Bailey, dubbed the Terrible Trio by the Sunday Times, were

on a mission to break free from typical studio fashion portraiture, which had previously

been seen as the only style by photographers such as Cecil Beaton. “Together they invented

a new style of documentary fashion photography. Their shots were looser, more

freewheeling, and decidedly energetic in contrast to the static posed shots that had come

before.”1

Brian Duffy (1933-2010) was born and raised in London to Irish parents and the eldest of

four children. After the outbreak of World War Two, he was evacuated as a child, to Wales,

along with his three siblings and mother. However, after only three weeks, their mother

insisted that the children all came home, so that they could still live together rather than

being apart. Duffy described himself as having the “most wonderful war”2 as he was free to

break in and burgle houses, terrorising his local neighbourhoods. In 1950, Duffy applied to

St. Martin’s School of Art with the intentions of becoming an artist. It was here, however,

where he was stunned at the talent of the other students and therefore decided to switch

to a dress-making course, largely influenced by the number of good-looking women. He

began to work as an assistant designer, which became useful later when it came to

photographing models, as he knew how their clothes should hang. He decided on a career in

1 Duffy, Baxter-Wright, E; Duffy, C. ACC Editions (30 Jun 2011)2 Duffy, Duffy, C. ACC Editions (30 Jun 2011)

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photography, as he once said, “This looks dead easy compared to the drawing lark. I’ll give

this a wiz!”3

Duffy’s first job as a photographer was working as an assistant before moving on to names

such as Vogue until 1963 and then Elle. He is the only photographer to have been asked to

do shoots’ for the Perelli pin-up girl calendar twice. Duffy also was involved in a lot of

advertisement photography and claimed that they were just snapshots with no editing,

apart from occasionally tampering with camera filters.

Described by many as a bit of enigma and who was one for not giving interviews, Duffy is

famous for burning the majority of his negatives in 1979, as he decided that that was it, and

that he had had enough. He no longer wanted to do photography and felt that he had

achieved everything he possibly could gain out of it. Unfortunately, in May 2010, due to

suffering from terminal lung cancer, Duffy passed away. Luckily for us though, not all of

Duffy’s negatives and prints were destroyed, so there is something still left behind for us to

be able to enjoy and admire his work.

This is where I have been looking at Duffy as an influence for my work for Unit Three. I am

interested in fashion photography and wanted to create a variation in my portfolio. Upon

deciding to look in to what kind of fashion photography that I found interesting, I discovered

Brian Duffy and the style of documentary fashion. To me personally, this kind of fashion

photography style has more interest as it is not directly focused on one thing and the

background can give the image personality as well as say a lot about the model. What I find

interesting in Duffy’s work is that how he describes his photographs as “snapshots” (which

they may well be) but they have captured moments in time which makes you ponder as to

3 Duffy, Duffy, C. ACC Editions (30 Jun 2011)

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what the photograph is trying to say, is there a story behind it, did he tell the models to do

certain things and how did he know when the right moment was to take it. This is what I like

about Duffy’s work as it makes me look at it for ages with fascination as well as making me

feel inspired by it.

By comparing my own work to Duffy, you

can see some similarities. I have tried not to

make my models too posed and try to have

a more natural and candid appearance in

the photographs. By doing this, I think this

can show through a person’s personality and

perhaps give the observer an idea of what

the model might be thinking. Even his studio

portraiture does not always appear directly

posed; an example of this is of his images of

Michael Cane. They have a quirky sort of personality to them, possibly reflecting Cane’s

actual own personality. The pose is very informal with a black canvas adding to a more

dramatic effect in the background. As Duffy said himself, his photographs’ do look dated but

with his images of Cane, they give a 1960s’ London Geezer vintage look which helps give an

insight in to the 1960s’ lifestyle.

As you can see in figure one, it’s a fine example of

Duffy’s “documentary fashion” and also of how his

work was so successful. Duffy, Donovan and

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http://www.artface.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Michael-Caine-1964.jpg


Bailey’s style was to invent something new to the usual-posed, studio portraiture that had

previously been used. It looks like the photograph has been taken in such a simple and

candid way that could almost be chance but with skill. It stands out and has interest despite

there not being a lot in the photograph. The fact that you can’t see the model’s face shows

the style that of photography he was trying to adapt.

Figure Two shows an example of some of

Duffy’s work for Vogue. Duffy once said that he

only wanted to make his models look like they

owned the clothes that they wore. I think this

shows an example of him managing to succeed

in doing exactly that. The image is street

photography-based with a background that has

interest. It looks like he timed the image at just

the right moment, with the scooters on the left

part of the background, capturing a bit of the

“Swinging Sixties” culture. This is a clever technique due to the image having a long depth of

field; it creates the observer to look beyond the model in the image and not just have the

model directly to focus on. Duffy has also used the rule of thirds technique as the model is

slightly over to the right of the image.

It also appears to be a square format image and would have been taken on a Rolleiflex

camera. Although the Rolleiflex cameras with square format images had been around since

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Figure 2. Duffy, B. A fashion shot for Vogue, 1964


1929, it was still a popular choice of camera, in the 1960s’, by photographers such as

Donovan and Diane Arbus.4

Figure 3 is one of the photographs’ that I have taken myself for Unit 3. Although I took this

on my digital SLR (Semi-lens reflex), I was trying to use a documentary fashion style by using

the tree as a background for the image. It was

also to try and add effect and more interest to the

image by curving her body to the shape of the

tree and having her look very candid in the image.

Due to the background being very bright with

light colours and as my model has very fair skin

and hair, it blends in quite well. I wanted to go for

quite a chic look quite like Duffy’s style with his

female models which I think works quite well for

this image. I have also used the rules of thirds

technique in this image which works well as I have

previously said with Figure 2; it doesn’t make the

observer focus specifically on the model or like

studio-posed-portraiture style, previously seen to Duffy’s style.

4 http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/theory/a-guide-to-producing-beautiful-square-format-images/

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Figure 3. Fletcher, I. 2011.


Duffy’s documentary fashion style is very

much focused around street photography

as Figures One, Two and Four show as

examples and Duffy for the majority of the

time uses urban settings. Figure Four would

have to have had the camera to have been

set on a high aperture to create a fast

shutter speed to capture the model only

holding the newspaper in the one hand.

Although, it looks slightly blurred so has not

captured it completely clear but it creates a focal point on the newspaper as well as the

model, especially as she appears to be reading it. The bottom of the image appears to be

slightly smudged, perhaps to either development or camera technical fault.

Figure 5 shows another example of Duffy’s chic Sixties

look with Westminster Bridge as the focal

background. The image has a shallow depth of field

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Figure 4. Fashion shot for Vogue, Duffy, B. Florence, Italy 1964

Figure 5. Duffy, B. 1961, Vogue, Westminster Bridge, London

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/52899036@N05/5517872085/



and again, Duffy has a very casual, candid look for the model which fits perfectly with the

changes of the 1960s’.

Figure Six is another example of

my work for Unit Three.

Although I haven’t gone for a

Duffy chic style, I wanted to use

an urban location to add an

overall grunge effect to the

image. I did this by using my

model smoking (like Duffy did in

many of his shots) and got him

to create a casual, candid pose by leaning up against the bin.

By using the bin as the centre of the image, by placing the model on the observer’s right-

side of it, it creates the rules of third technique (as seen used various times by Duffy). I

haven’t shot it on a particularly shallow depth of field and again for this, used my Canon

D100 SLR (Semi-lens-reflex) camera. By editing the image black and white in Photoshop, the

graffiti on the bin and also the use of the cigarette as a prop, it creates the grunge look that I

was going for and also captures a moment in time, very much the same technique that Duffy

was going for.

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Figure 6. Fletcher, I. 2011


Duffy did also use the studio for

his shoots. An example of this (as I

have previously mentioned) is his

shoot for David Bowie’s “Aladin

Sane” cover. Despite only being a

headshot and on a plain white

canvas, the use of make up,

candid pose and lighting create an

interesting overall image. The use

of make-up is very vivid, eye capturing and bright which creates a sort of fantasy scene. To

create a very vibrant background for this image, Duffy would have used lighting on the

backdrop and also behind Bowie to not create shadows in the background.

By looking at a lot of Duffy’s photographs’, you can see an almost rebellious side to them;

which of course at the time, the 1960s’ was the time of change after the Conservative ways

of the 1950s’ and the Post-War era. Despite Duffy only thinking himself that he was taking

snapshots, regardless of whether they were any good or not and also to earn money for his

family. Whilst photographers’ such as Bailey did not have to do it as a money/job side of

things but as a glamorous thing and to spend time with his models.

The film producer, David Puttnam’s view on Duffy – “Brian Duffy was far more than a gifted

photographer; he was a uniquely constructive "social anarchist" who, through sheer force of

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personality, helped push the stultifying conservatism of the 1950s into permanent retreat.

They may not know it, but every participant in what today would be referred to as the

"creative industries" will be forever in his debt. Being around Duffy could be explosive and

even alarming; but it was never, ever, dull.”5 This is indeed correct. Without Duffy, Donovan

and Bailey, the revolution in this style of fashion photography would perhaps never have

happened. Photographers’ in today’s world of documentary-style fashion photography

would owe their influences to these three men.

BibliographyWEBSITES

5 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jun/06/brian-duffy-obituary

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http://www.duffyphotographer.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pwsns - BBC FOUR DOCUMENTARY: “BRIAN DUFFY – THE MAN WHO SHOT THE ‘60S”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jun/06/brian-duffy-obituary

WEBSITES FOR PHOTOGRAPHS


http://www.artface.co.uk/art-news/brian-duffy-at-the-lucy-bell-gallery-hastings/

BOOKS

Duffy, Duffy, C. ACC Editions (30 Jun 2011)

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/jun/06/brian-duffy-obituary

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pwsns

http://www.duffyphotographer.com/

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