David Bailey
The photograph was taken by David Bailey. Bailey was born in 1938 and is still alive today at the age of 74. He is regarded as one of the best British photographers. I choose to look at the photograph of Jack Nicholson as it seemed to me, to be one of the most interesting of Bailey photos. I also tried to achieve a similar look with my own photographs with the use of artificial lights.
To gain a better understanding into Bailey's work I looked at a magazine article from 'Lomography' which talks about the 'Swinging Sixties' era, which cam about when Bailey and other photographers Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, began a culture celebrating high fashion. They mainly associated with famous actors, actresses and musicians which resulted in most of his photographers being of well known people. I would say that the genre of the design is definitely portraiture as it is a close up of Jack Nicholson, with the focal point being his quite disturbing facial expression. I am not so sure if there is a theme for this photograph, but when searching for the image I did come across that it was under the label 'Legends', and Jack Nicholson can be considered as such for his iconic movie 'The Shining'. The subject of the work as mentioned is Jack Nicholson a famous actor in hollywood and it is quite likely that the photograph was taken around the same time as the movie, 'The Shining' as this was were he was at the height of his career.
The photograph was captured using a simple black and white, film SLR, which was pretty much all he could he use as at the time the photograph was taken there wasn't any digital cameras. Bailey used a very strong lighting form, with light only shining from one side of his face, whilst the other was quite dark in comparison. I assume he used a fast shutter speed to capture the photograph. The high contrast in the dark areas of the photograph make it seem more sinister and quite scary. Also the shadows in his face help to highlight the wrinkles on his face. His expression seems to be one of pain, as he doesn't seem to be angry because his eyes aren't wide open, instead they are shut as if he is crying. Nicholson's expression in this photograph could reflect his character 'Jack Torrance' in The shining.
In my opinion I really like the photograph the emotion he is portraying is really strong. The contrast of the dark areas and light areas are perfect, there is enough dark areas to bring about that sinister mood, however there is enough light areas that you can still see the details in his face. Since knowing each other I would associate Bailey's work with that of Terrence Donvan. Bailey's work has inspired to be more adventrous with lighting and to use it to my advantage.
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