Capturing lives less ordinary; Photographer to the stars Cecil Beaton is the subject of a new exhibition at The Walker. Laura Davis reports.Byline: Laura Davis WE KNOW their faces almost better than those of friends or family -- never changing, unaffected by the passing of time or age. Dozens of photographs were taken of Audrey Hepburn and many more of Marilyn Monroe, so why should we be so drawn to those captured by Cecil Beaton? Is it the crafty look he traps in Monroe's eye or the essence of innocence in Hepburn's gamine ga·mine n. 1. An often homeless girl who roams about the streets; an urchin. 2. A girl or woman of impish appeal. [French, feminine of gamin, gamin. features? These are truly portraits in the painting sense of the word, depicting something of the subject's personality that cannot usually be seen by the naked eye. "The image of Marilyn Monroe from 1956 is really unusual and very beautiful. It's very different from the many other photographs you see of her," says Lucy Johnson, exhibition officer at the Walker Art Gallery, where a display of Beaton's captivating cap·ti·vate tr.v. cap·ti·vat·ed, cap·ti·vat·ing, cap·ti·vates 1. To attract and hold by charm, beauty, or excellence. See Synonyms at charm. 2. Archaic To capture. portraits opens in June. "We were given a list of images by the National Portrait Gallery and we selected around 50. "We wanted to show a variety of different sitters and also work that spans his whole career." Throughout his life, Beaton continually reinvented his style of photography, never getting left behind and profoundly influencing portrait photography The goal of portrait photography is to capture the likeness of a person or a small group of people, typically in a flattering manner. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of photograph is the person's face, although the entire body and the background may be included. and those who were to follow in his footsteps such as Mario Testino and David Bailey. "Beaton's pictures are in stark contrast with the images of celebrities we're used to seeing today, which are so intrusive. "They are very controlled and intimate and they give a real insight into the personalities and why they were among the most celebrated of the 20th century." The Oscar-winning snapper snapper, name for members of the Lutianidae, a family of spiny-finned food and game fishes found chiefly in tropical coastal waters. Snappers are carnivorous, active, and voracious, with large mouths and sharp teeth. Most species travel in dense schools. , who died in 1980, was as famous for his charisma as for his unrivalled access to the lives of the rich and famous. His long career covered an era of great change from the Roaring Twenties to the dawn of the New Romantics, when he captured a dazzling array of superstars and leading personalities including the Queen, Mick Jagger, Winston Churchill and Lucian Freud. A touching image of the Queen, in three rows of pearls lifting a two-yearold Prince Charles on to her shoulders, is included in the exhibition. The figurative painter Francis Bacon is caught almost recoiling from the lens, his hunched shoulders pressed against the wall of framed pictures behind him. And from where he stands, encircled by the antlers protruding from a pair of deer heads, German artist Lucian Freud's gaze is confident and challenging. "He was a pioneering portrait photographer and he recognised the growing culture of celebrity, but he wasn't exploitative," reveals Lucy. "He had very close relationships with the sitters and knew them well." A charismatic character who could charm and cajole (language) CAJOLE - (Chris And John's Own LanguagE) A dataflow language developed by Chris Hankin <clh@doc.ic.ac.uk> and John Sharp at Westfield College. ["The Data Flow Programming Language CAJOLE: An Informal Introduction", C.L. , amuse and flirt, electrify e·lec·tri·fy tr.v. e·lec·tri·fied, e·lec·tri·fy·ing, e·lec·tri·fies 1. To produce electric charge on or in (a conductor). 2. a. and calm, Beaton's career as a photographer began as a teenager with his earliest portraits of his sister, Baba, taken in 1922. After studying at Cambridge, he managed to get his early pictures published in society magazines The Sketch, Tatler and Eve. At just 23, Beaton secured a contract with Vogue to provide portraits, caricatures and social commentary. With the exception of two short breaks he remained working for the fashion Bible for the rest of his life. "He had quite a varied career," says Lucy. "He was the official royal photographer for a time and the exhibition includes some images of a young Princess Elizabeth and of Prince Charles as a little boy." Also a writer, artist, designer, actor, caricaturist, illustrator and diarist di·a·rist n. A person who keeps a diary. diarist Noun a person who writes a diary that is subsequently published Noun 1. , Beaton won Oscars for his design work in the Hollywood blockbusters Gigi (1957) and My Fair Lady (1964). But his work wasn't always glamorous. He became an official war photographer during the 40s, working for the Ministry of Information. Knighted in 1972, Beaton had a stroke in 1974 but returned to photography three years later. In 1980, he died during the night at his home in Wiltshire, but his photography lives on. CECIL BEATON: Portraits is at the Walker Art Gallery from June 26 to August 31.. Cecil Beaton's captivating image of Marilyn Monroe German artist Lucian Freud CAPTION(S): Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles by Cecil Beaton [umlaut umlaut (  m`lout) [Ger.,=transformed sound], in inflection, variation of vowels of the type of English man to men. ]
V& A Images, all other picture [umlaut] Cecil Beaton Archive,
Sotheby's London Irish-born figurative painter Francis Bacon Cecil
Beaton's captivating image of Marilyn Monroe German artist Lucian
Freud Audrey Hepburn's was one of the many famous faces captured by
Beaton's lens
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