The man who shot the sixties
Bailey, Donovan, Duffy. No first names needed. This trailblazing photographic triumvirate lit up the 1960s and beyond, arguably becoming more famous than most of its subjects. Dubbed ‘The Black Trinity’ by legendary fashion photographer Norman Parkinson, the three young Londoners pushed the boundaries of photographic style and innovation like nobody who had come before. Unlike the more avuncular Bailey and Donovan, Duffy was a more truculent character, of whom Bailey said, ‘Aggravation and Duffy go together like gin and tonic.’
Never one to suffer fools gladly, Duffy began taking pictures for Vogue in 1957 and for more than 20 years he shot groundbreaking fashion for the likes of Vogue and Elle magazines, iconic portraits such as Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and highly inventive advertising campaigns for Smirnoff and Benson & Hedges. This was all done with adroitness, visual ingenuity and technical excellence, which have never been matched since.
He died in 2010, aged 76, from a degenerative lung disease, only 12 months after he had picked up a camera for the first
