Lewis Morley

Lewis Morley's photographs epitomize the buoyant spirit of Britain in the 1960s. Born in Hong Kong, Morley began his career as a painter, but turned to photography in the 1950s. He worked extensively in the theatre, his subjects including John Hurt, Judi Dench, Charlotte Rampling and the cast of the show "Beyond the Fringe". Morley's images of Christine Keeler and Joe Orton are the most familiar of his photographs, but he did not confine himself to the worlds of political scandal and theatre, and his photographs of personalities invovled in art, music, literature, pop and fashion give a full portrait of the creative and energetic decade. The book documents the exhibition of Lewis Morley's work held at the National Portrait Gallery in 1989. Morley emigrated to Australia in 1971 and worked principally for the Australian interiors magazine "Bella", but both book and exhibition rediscover the portrait photography. 86 photographs are reproduced.