A gorgeous and ultra-hip look at the man who recorded the swinging London scene of the 1960s and helped define British cool

Before the age of Tony Blair's Cool Britannia, there was David Bailey--Cockney arbiter of the UK's "Birth of the Cool." When Mary Quant designed the first thigh-skimming mini-dress, when Jean Shrimpton burst on the scene, and when The Beatles took the world by storm, David Bailey had arrived ahead of time to record the scene with his camera. This young photographer emerged from London's tough East End and rose to become England's most famous fashion and celebrity photographer. He lived with Jean Shrimpton, was friends with Mick Jagger, married Catherine Deneuve, and was the inspiration for Michelangelo Antonioni's cinema classic Blow-Up. Now, David Bailey--Birth of the Cool tells the story of his meteoric rise to the top; collects his photographs of the most celebrated models and movie stars, aristocrats, and rock stars of the 1960s; and defines an era for all time.

Complete with Bailey's most famous photographs of Penelope Tree, Michael Caine, and the Rolling Stones, David Bailey--Birth of the Cool features his photographs of the Kray Brothers, the most notorious and glamorous criminals in 1960s London as well as private and unpublished documentary photography. David Bailey--Birth of the Cool is a must for the fashion conscious, photography fans, rock and roll aficionados, and all those interested in Anglo chic.

David Bailey's name is synonymous with the Swinging Sixties, when fashion photography became big business, and the man behind the camera could become as famous as the celebrities who posed for him. And Bailey was the most famous--the East End boy who became best friends with the Beatles and the Stones, the husband of actress Catherine Deneuve, and lover of model Jean Shrimpton--chronicling them all in a series of unmistakable, unforgettable shots. David Bailey: Birth of the Cool delves into the photographer's archive and reproduces some of his earliest work (the 1959 wedding of a neighbor's daughter was one of his first professional gigs), previously unpublished documentary film stills, and the spectacular images of quintessential '60s mannequins Shrimpton and Penelope Tree introducing mod fashion to Vogue magazine readers. The result is a treasure-trove of images from one of the most exciting periods in the 20th century, when the cult of youth, fame, and glamour was worshipped and--in this case--most beautifully recorded. --Amazon.co.uk