Artist Study: Cecil Beaton

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Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. 

Sir Cecil Beaton was a British portrait photographer celebrated as a society photographer and had his claim to fame when he held his first exhibition in 1926 and signed an immediate contract with vogue. He was also the costume designer for 'My Fair Lady' and 'Gigi'.


Pictures and more after the jump.

He was a photographer for the British Edition of Vogue when he first met George Hoyningen-Huene, a photographer for French Vogue, who both are pioneers for the style and sophistication of the 1930's as we know it. Beaton was one of the first celebrity photographers, often shooting stars like Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly.

Cecil Beaton photographs Grace Kelly, 1954



Cecil Beaton photographs Marilyn Monroe, 1956



Beaton was arguably the best photographer of his era and has influenced Angus McBean and David Bailey's careers. By the end of the 1970's, he became considerably ill. Cecil Beaton died in January 1980. His last photography portrait was that of Queen Sita Devi of Kapurthala in 1940.