Author(s): National Portrait Gallery

Photography

Photography, pop music, film and fashion coalesced in 1960s London to produce a cultural legacy that resonates today. Beatles to Bowie: the 60s Exposed includes more than 150 photographic portraits of leading pop musicians, including rare portraits of The Beatles, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. This book features the leading personalities that helped create the legend of 'Swinging London', arguably the most significant city of cultural creativity in the world. Placing the history of photography at the centre of pop culture during this period, the book highlights the artists - Cliff Richard, The Kinks, the Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, Lulu, Bob Dylan, Dusty Springfield, Led Zeppelin, T-Rex, The Who and many more - whose music, performances and looks made them the leading icons of their time. It illustrates how photographers explored new creative opportunities and outlets and had a major impact on how British musicians were seen and understood. A new wave of young photographers - including Fiona Adams, David Bailey, Michael Cooper, Gered Mankowitz, Jean-Marie Perier, Philip Townsend and Robert Whitaker - worked alongside established names and absorbed aesthetic and commercial influences which changed the cultural status of their work. With 300 illustrations, including items of ephemera, over 70 musicians and singers, and the work of more than 60 photographers, this book presents an in-depth overview of pop portraits in the 1960s.