DAVID BAILEY, Patti Boyd: MODEL WIFE FOR A BEATLE, Innocent..., 1964, 11.9x8.2" gelatin silver print, Printed c. 1964, typed label on print verso: Patti Boyd: / MODEL WIFE FOR A BEATLE / Innocent... / Please acknowledge: photograph by DAVID BAILEY / CAMERA PRESS LONDON / 11672-4; stamped in purple ink: copyright / Russell Court / Coram St. / London W.O.1. / Terminus 4488 & 9393; inscribed in pencil: Vogue Aug 1964 / 50 ag 1964 / PAE 5,2

Here David Bailey captures Patti Boyd, the wife and muse of George Harrison of the Beatles, leaving him as she became the muse and wife of Eric Clapton. (She and Clapton were married in Tucson in 1979 on a tour stop. She was the inspiration for his songs Layla and Wonderful Tonight.)

David Bailey is an English fashion photographer best known for his images of celebrities, models, and musicians. He is also known for his photography book NWI (1982), which documented the process of gentrification in the London neighborhoods of Primrose Hill and Camden. Born on January 2, 1938 in London, United Kingdom, Bailey dropped out of high school to serve in the Royal Air Force, where he developed an interest in the photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Returning to England, Bailey began working as the fashion photographer John French's assistant.

In 1960 he began to photograph for British Vogue, where he worked for about 15 years, first on staff and later as a freelancer. He also freelanced for other magazines and newspapers. Bailey's fashion work and celebrity portraiture, characterized by stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting effects, transformed British fashion and celebrity photography from chic but reserved stylization to something more youthful and direct. His work reflects the 1960s British cultural trend of breaking down antiquated and rigid class barriers by injecting a working-class or "punk" look into both clothing and artistic products. Bailey himself became a celebrity who epitomized "swinging London"; he was known for his affairs with several celebrated women, among them the model Jean Shrimpton and the actress Catherine Deneuve, whom he married in 1965 (divorced 1972). In 1965, he also published his first photography book Box of Pin-Ups, a collection of black-and-white images portraying Mick Jagger, The Beatles, Twiggy, and Andy Warhol, along with several other celebrity figures. He is thought to have inspired the role of the photographer, Thomas, in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-up (1966).

Bailey has gone on to receive the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II, and in 2016 a Lifetime Achievement award from the International Center of Photography in New York. The artist's photographs are held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Bailey currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom.

Credit: http://www.artnet.com/artists/david-bailey/

Good. Crease at the top of the print, visible in raking light. Surface abrasions, handling marks, edge wear.