Norman Parkinson

In a career that spanned seven decades, Norman Parkinson (1913–90) charmed the world with his lively inventiveness as a fashion photographer. His long association with Vogue, and his numerous assignments for Harper's Bazaar, Town & Country and other international magazines, brought him worldwide recognition.

His innovative style transformed the static, posed approach to fashion photography by taking his models from the rigid studio environment into a far more dynamic outdoor setting in the 1940s. While his enchanting persona, coupled with the Kahmiri wedding hat that he always wore while taking photographs, charmed his sitters and projected an alluring and glamorous public image.

Many of the greatest icons of the twentieth century, as well as some of the world's most beautiful women, have been captured through Parkinson's witty eye and stylish lens. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches tall, Parkinson was unable to remain unobtrusive behind the lens and instead became as much of a personality as those who sat for him.

His flawless professionalism, and well-rehearsed eccentricities reassured the uneasy sitter allowing humour to play a central role in many of his photographs. Although, humour was always second fiddle to the majestic glamour and beauty that became his signature.

By the end of his life (he died on location in 1990) he had become a household name, the recipient of a CBE, a photographer to the Royal Family, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and the subject of a large-scale retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery (1981).

Norman Parkinson is featured in the forthcoming Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, at the Tate Modern from May – October 2008.

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