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ENTRY: Deakin, John
John Deakin (b. 1912 – d. 1972) was an English photographer,
best known for his work centered around the bohemian members of Francis Bacon's Soho inner circle.
Born on the Wirral, and attending West Kirby Grammar School, Deakin began his career in the 1940s as a freelance photographer for British Vogue,
although his his clinical realist style suggested he cared almost nothing for the glamour
or vanity of his famous subjects, and he was later fired from his position. He really wanted
to be a painter, and despised photography. He neglected his archive, and the majority of his pictures have
been damaged or destroyed.
During the 1950s and 1960s he took a series of portraits on commission for
Francis Bacon, many of which the painter later used as source material for
some of his most noted work.
He photographed eccentric street scenes in Paris and Rome, displaying a quirkier side to his
nature. In his haunting evokations of post-war Rome, he reveals unexpected romantic beauty with a painter's eye.
A chronic alcoholic, he died in obscurity and poverty, though his reputation has grown since a 1984 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
 Victor Emmanuel Monument, John Deakin
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Made in Staffordshire, England. © 2007.
Last updated: 18th Jan 2007. Site search by PicoSearch. Some of the initial E-BNR text was sourced or partly derived from Wikipedia, used here under the GNU licence. | ||||||||||||||||||||
