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Modernbook Gallery

July 12 - September 2, 2012

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49 Geary Street 4th Floor San Francisco, CA 94108
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Brian Duffy David Bowie, Aladdin Sane, 1973
For our summer exhibition, Modernbook Gallery is excited to showcase photographs by legendary celebrity and fashion photographer, Brian Duffy. The exhibition surveys Duffy's fashion images from the 1960's through 1970's and his collaboration with rock star, David Bowie. Brian Duffy was born to Irish parents in London in 1933. Duffy enrolled at Saint Martins School of Art in 1950. Having initially signed up to study Painting, Duffy quickly transferred to Dress Design. After graduation, he began freelancing as a fashion artist for Harper’s Bazaar, and it was here that he first came into contact with photography. In 1957, hired by British Vogue, where he worked closely with top models of the period, including Joy Weston, Jennifer Hocking, and Jean Shrimpton. Apart from Vogue, Duffy also worked for Glamour, Esquire, Town Magazine, Queen Magazine as well as The Observer, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and French Elle. During the 60s, Duffy, together with David Bailey and Terence Donovan is recognized as one of the innovators of “documentary” fashion photography, a style which revolutionized fashion imagery and furthermore the fashion industry. So influential were their images that in 1962 the Sunday Times dubbed Duffy, Bailey & Donovan the “Terrible Trio” and Norman Parkinson further added to their notoriety by naming them “The Black Trinity”. Together they dominated the London photographic scene, constantly pushing each other to new heights. As well as fashion photography, Duffy was the creative force behind record album sleeve art for three David Bowie album covers, most notably the iconic Aladdin Sane. He was also successful in the advertising world, one of the few photographers to shoot two Pirelli calendars in both 1965 and 1973, and shooting high profile campaigns for both Benson & Hedges and Smirnoff in the 1970s. In 1979, Duffy decided to give up photography by burning many of his negatives! Though some were saved from the fire, a large amount of his images have been lost. The ones that remain stand collectively as a comprehensive visual history of twenty-five years of British culture and fashion. In 2009, at the behest of his son, Chris, Duffy resumed work as a photographer and shot images of people he had photographed in the 60s and 70s. Duffy died on 31 May 2010, after suffering from a degenerative lung disease.