David Hamilton (born April 15, 1933) is a photographer from Britain.
His artistic skills began to emerge during a job at an architect's office. At age 20, he went to Paris, where he worked as graphic designer for Peter Knapp of ELLE magazine. After becoming known and successful, he was hired away from ELLE by Queen magazine in London as art director. Hamilton soon realized his love for Paris, however, and after returning there became the art director of Printemps, the city's largest department store. Hamilton began photographing commercially while still employed, and the dreamy, grainy style of his images quickly brought him success.
His photographs were in demand by other magazines such as Realites, Twen and Photo. By the end of the 1960s, Hamilton's work had a recognizable style. His further success included many dozens of photographic books with combined sales well into the millions, five feature films, countless magazine publishings and scores of museum and gallery exhibitions.[citation needed] In December, 1977, Images Gallery in New York City showed his photographs, at the same time that Bilitis was released. He also maintained an apartment in New York. His soft focus style also came back into fashion at Vogue, ELLE and other high-class fashion magazines from around 2003. Long ago, Hamilton lived with Mona Kristensen, who was a model in many of his early photobooks and made her screen debut in Bilitis. More recently, he was married to Gertrude but they have since divorced amicably and she lives in New York working as a painter. Hamilton divides his time between St Tropez and Paris. Since 2005 he has been enjoying a revival in popularity and two new books have been released. One, titled "David Hamilton", and one, "Erotic Tales", contains Hamilton's writings. A third book is scheduled for release in mid-2007.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is holding more exhibitions around the world. Commencing 15 March 2007 is one in the Aston Martin showroom in Stuttgart, Germany. In May will be a larger exhibition in Italy.
As much of Hamilton's work depicts early-teen girls, often nude, he has been the subject of some controversy and even child pornography allegations, mostly from North America and Britain, similar to that which the work of Sally Mann and Jock Sturges have attracted. In the late 1990s, some American Christian conservatives protested bookstores that stocked Hamilton's photography books but their efforts came to nothing. Because of differing attitudes regarding age and nudity, Hamilton has not received this negative attention in his adopted home of France, nor in the rest of the world.
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MARTINIERE BL
UK, France
