Cecil Beaton et alia

That must have been a daunting prospect: photographing Cecil Beaton!

Though I have to say, the guy at the back looks like an extra in "Are You Being Served" or similar 1970's sitcom. Amazing how much fashions change in a few short decades...

Cheers, Bob.

Bob, that's exactly what I was thinking! That show really anoyed me but I still watched it once in a while

Cecil Beaton was actually charm personified - the one who made the fuss was Mrs. Five-By-Five on the left (a museum employee), who felt that the picture, shot with a Leica and 28 mm lens for graphic impact, suggested her figure had a less than perfect resemblance to that of a gazelle and tried to get the picture suppressed! You don't get this kind of problem with rocks and trees!

There's something very pleasingly surreal about this photograph. It's hard to believe they weren't camping it up a little.

I particularly like the way Beaton is rather courteously and carefully holding the model's left "hand", and yet he has his hand right over her face!

And poor lady on the left. She looks, after all, perfectly fine.

A great photo - thanks for posting it!

Cate

Having only this year travelled to see a Cecil Beaton exhibition of his photographs, which seemed to cover around 60 odd years, I agree it could have been slightly intimidating taking his picture. I never fully realised the breadth of his work, especially his costume designing for movies.

It's a good triple portrait, something that is hard to pull off.

Mick.