David Bailey: If We Shadows

Sometimes tender and witty, often violent and disturbing, David Bailey’s photographs have lost neither their power to arouse and to shock, nor the aesthetic appeal which makes them linger in the mind.

In this collection of classic work from the 1980s, the artist abstains from any comment or explanation – each viewer sees in these pictures what he or she is prepared to see. If there is comment, it arises from the photographer’s wickedly funny or coldly horrifying juxtapositions.

Bob Geldof faces a Peruvian Christ figure; a laughing Anita Pallenburg and a grinning skull make up a modern vanitas. We are often attracted; we are sometimes repelled. We cannot remain indifferent.

David Bailey’s mature style has gained in profundity without any loss of the energy of his work in the 1960s. We see, too, that there has been no retreat from his dedication to honesty. But though these ‘shadows’ may offend, they also excite and instruct, and show us the world of a photographer whose vision has been ever sharpened by time.