Remembrance of things past: The cultural context and the rise and fall in the popularity of photographer David Hamilton

Abstract

For 10 years, from the late 1960s, the France-based British photographer David Hamilton gained widespread public acclaim. His work appeared ubiquitous in popular culture, from photo shoots for Vogue to the publicity photography for the Nina Ricci perfume L’Air du Temps. His books, featuring soft focus imagery of young women in idyllic summer settings devoid of the symbols of modernity, became bestsellers in many countries, bought in their hundreds of thousands, and captured a romantic and escapist aesthetic of the time that influenced cultural products from advertising to fashion. This article examines his work and its public reception to explain both its initial phenomenal popularity and subsequent disregard. It is argued here that his photography provides insight into the cultural Zeitgeist of that early period and, by charting its reception, changing sociocultural sensibilities can be observed.

Keywords

• the 1970s
• photography
• david hamilton
• jeune filles en fleurs
• representation of women
• popular culture