Angus McBean

 

Yesterday I have mention Welsh photographer Angus McBean whom I just discovered (or so I thought) on the exhibition about love, artists and muses. But when I decided to find out more about him, it turned out I was very familiar with his work - to a certain point almost everybody is - its just that I did not know his name. You see, when I was much younger and lived in London, there used to be a poster outside of The National Portrait Gallery with a extremely attractive photo of Vivien Leigh and I always wanted that poster - that was Angus McBean, who, now I know, was kind of her official photographer trough several decades. 

Not only Leigh but he created beautiful studio portraits of the whole post-WW2 British theatre scene and everybody who was anybody in Covent Garden, the Royal Opera House, the Old Vic or Stratford-upon-Avon was subject of his work - this might explain why he was celebrated but not so known internationally as for example Cecil Beaton who worked for Vanity Fair and Vogue - however, his work had always a dose of very careful theatrically and drama, in addition to touches of occasional endearing surrealism that probably seemed weird back than but to me just signifies great sense of humour. 

Researching more about his work, I discovered that I am indeed very familiar with his photo portraits - many of them were actually legendary, thought people might not always recognise his name. By far the most famous picture he ever took might be the one gracing the debut album of four musicians from Liverpool - yes, it was McBean who took the cover photo of "Please Please Me" (and later similar, used for compilation "1967-1970"). He has worked extensively for record companies, so I actually own albums by Shirley Bassey and Cliff Richard with his photo covers. I just love his work. 

p.s. this is excellent photo portrait of young Quentin Crisp in 1941.