David Bailey: Rock and Roll Heroes

Just a sampling of contact sheets of the 'rock and roll heroes' from the sixties captured by the photographer who defined the decade, David Bailey 

 A photo sheet of Bailey's wife from 1965-1972, Catherine Deneuve, pictured here just following her stint in Repulsion and her marriage to the photographer in 1965

British Pop Artist David Hockney, creator of the 'joiner' style of art (otherwise known as photomontage) and one of the leaders of the British art scene

David Bailey's former fiancee Jean Shrimpton, who has stated that she owes her entire career as the most prolific model of the Sixties to the photographer, pictured here in 1965 

John Lennon and Paul McCartney, of whom Bailey said, "I felt a bit of animosity between these two, that's why I did them looking different ways..."

The famed Kray Twins, Reggie and Ronnie, well-known perpetrators of organized crime in London's East End who become celebrity-nightclub owners of the Swinging London scene. Bailey was friends with the brothers, saying of his time with them that, "Ron was scary. Reg wasn't so scary. 'Dave, Dave,' he used to whisper, 'I wish we could have done it legit-like.' He used to send me poems ... I mean they were terrible people. Don't get me wrong." 

Mrs. Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow

An Alfie-era Michael Caine

Of Mick Jagger, Bailey said, "Mick was a mate. He was always around ... It was a pleasure to work with Mick." 

Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, taken shortly before her pregnancy

The happy couple seen during the same photo shoot but goofing around a bit more than the tender embrace they held in the set of photos in the previous contact sheet

The Rolling Stones, a group that Bailey called "the best rock and roll band that ever was," pictured in 1968. A photo from this session, with Brian Jones turned the opposite direction of the camera was used on the release of the single "Child of the Moon" 

David Bailey, describing how his friend Jagger differed from the rest of the band: "He was a bit bourgeois Mick, but the rest were wild ones." 

While Bailey was more of a Rolling Stones fan than a Beatle nut, Bailey did some great work in this photo session with John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Bailey noted that the Beatles "were just a boy band in the beginning with silly suits and silly haircuts, they were way out of date. I only liked their stuff after the White Album."

Ironically, this photo session took place three years before Bailey started 'liking' their work.