David Bailey has released a new photographic portrait of the Queen ahead of her 88th birthday tomorrow ( 21 April) . The photo was shot in March this year and shows the Monarch wearing a dress by the Royal designer Angela Kelly accessorised with a triple strand pearl necklace. David Bailey who currently has a retrospective exhibition on at the National Portrait Gallery was awarded a CBE in 2001. The 76-year-old said: “I’ve always been a huge fan of the Queen. She has very kind eyes with a mischievous glint. I’ve always liked strong women, and she is a very strong woman.”
Recently-appointed culture secretary Sajid Javid said the portrait would help to support the aims of the campaign, which he said was to “showcase everything that is great about the UK to an international audience”. Javid, who is responsible for tourism has stated that it is the UK’s 5th largest export earner. It contributes £24bn to the country’s economy. This portrait and the promotion of the monarchy is part of the attraction to visitors coming to the UK.
One of the world’s most distinguished and distinctive photographers, David Bailey has made an outstanding contribution to the visual arts, creating consistently imaginative and thought-provoking portraits. As well as including new work, this exhibition contains a wide variety of Bailey’s photographs from a career that has spanned more than half a century.
The portraits in his current exhibition have been personally selected by him from the subjects and groups that he captured over the last five decades: photographers, actors, writers, musicians, filmmakers, fashion icons, designers, models, artists and people encountered on his travels; many of them famous, some unknown, all of them engaging and memorable. Bailey has made new silver gelatin prints of his black-and-white portraits especially for the exhibition.