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Business of Fashion
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business of Fashion
David Bailey, Immortal
David Bailey wanted to play jazz, like his hero Chet Baker, but his trumpet was stolen when he was 19. He bought a Rolleiflex camera, by which happy accident he became a finger on the handful of photographers who have defined their age. And you don't have to guess which finger: the 'up yours' of his most iconic images nailed a time and place like no one has since. But an exhibition opening at Spain's MOP Foundation at the end of June aims to prove that Bailey's claim on posterity rests on more than his portraits from Sixties London. 'We had to talk him into including more fashion,' says his son, Fenton, a co-curator of the show. 'Everyone wants to see things that haven't been seen before.' Possibly to reflect that, the exhibition is titled 'David Bailey's Changing Fashion,' and its 200 images, whittled down from a possible 3000, offer a refresher on two key decades of a career whose breadth may come as a surprise, especially as it spotlights Bailey's witty, seductive colour work from the Seventies. Catherine Deneuve. (© David Bailey) Anjelica Huston and Manolo Blahnik. (© David Bailey) Marie Helvin. (© David Bailey) Fact is, most people still know Bailey for his close-cropped, monochrome portraits from the Sixties. They established him as the arch-chronicler of a cultural watershed, and they're about as iconic as a photographic image can get, so it's impossible to imagine a Bailey show of this scale without them. Appropriately, they're represented at MOP by the entirety of 1965's Box of Pin-Ups, 38 gravures which originally sold for £3. (You'll pay £20,000 now.) Described at the time as a 'popcracy,' the images have since 'transcended ephemerality to become austerely poignant and authentic documents,' according to art historian Martin Harrison. Here you find the classic images of Lennon and McCartney, Jagger, Hockney, Michael Caine, Bailey's model girlfriend Jean Shrimpton, Cecil Beaton and Rudolf Nureyev à deux, and, notoriously, Ronnie and Reggie Kray, the twins who dominated London's gangland with a sadistic, vice-like grip. Bailey called Ronnie 'the scariest person I ever met.' And Lord Snowdon, another of the pin-ups, was so horrified to be sharing space with the Krays, he saw to it that the book was never published in the United States. Mick Jagger, 1964. (© David Bailey) Jean Shrimpton, 1965. (© David Bailey) Reggie, Charlie and Ronnie Kray, 1965. (© David Bailey) It's not only the monochrome — or some of the subject matter — that cast a shadow over the pin-ups. Bailey grew up with the triple whammy of dyslexia, dyspraxia and a father whose constant flatulence was so toxic it left him with a lifelong loathing of farts. 'Language skills are not his strength,' says Bailey's wife Catherine. 'He's not very good at articulating what he wants. He speaks through images.' Later in life, if he wasn't taking photos, he was painting. And, since his diagnosis of vascular dementia in 2018, both have been a lifeline for him. When he photographed Marta Ortega Pérez, chairwoman of Zara owner Inditex and the founder of MOP, 'It was like a lightbulb being turned back on,' says Catherine. 'Taking pictures is who he is. He doesn't think about legacy, it's up to what the people who get left behind do. He refuses to acknowledge mortality. He doesn't plan on dying.' Now 87, he also doesn't believe there's anything wrong with him, according to his wife, even as the dementia has exacerbated his other traits. That means the MOP show has truly been a monumental labour of love for those closest to Bailey. 'He always jumped from one subject to another,' recalls Catherine. 'Schizophrenic's not the word, he's always got a camera and he's constantly photographing whoever he's with.' She knows this side of Bailey better than anyone. 'It's irritating when you're trying to get on with your daily life, but years later, in hindsight, the pictures you might have complained about…'. There are books of Bailey's photos of Catherine that finish that sentence for her. She never saw herself in those pictures. 'It's someone else's interpretation of you, a version.' No surprise that it's the personal photos that are her favourites. Same with Fenton, who points to a picture his father took of him when he was 4 or 5. He's a baby Lancelot, brandishing a sword in a field. Bailey never thought of himself as a fashion photographer. 'My photos weren't about fashion, they were about the woman,' he once said. 'I was interested in photographing the woman in the dress, not the dress on the woman. The only time I noticed a dress, it usually turned out to be Balenciaga or Saint Laurent. The rest were just frocks.' Bailey always preferred his portraiture, which lends some irony to the fact that it was actually fashion that made him, with a little help from Shrimpton. Their liaison is rivalled only by Meisel-Evangelista as the greatest photographer-model pairing in fashion history. Balenciaga, 1967. (© David Bailey) Bailey & Jean Jumping, 1971. (© David Bailey) He was a birdwatcher when he was a kid. He loved Bambi too (and nursed an enduring hatred of Hitler after a V-2 bomb blew up the movie theatre where he'd watched the movie. Who killed Bambi? Hitler did!). Women were 'birds' in the parlance of Sixties London. Shrimpton, with her gangly legs, was a proper Bambi bird. He didn't marry her. He married Catherine Deneuve instead, a month after meeting her through Roman Polanski. When the short-lived liaison ended, Bailey fell for the model Penelope Tree, who revitalised his love of image-making after his mid-Sixties slump, when Time magazine's 'Swinging' London cover was the scene's ultimate kiss of death. He didn't marry her either. He waited a few years before his next marriage to the Hawaiian beauty Marie Helvin. After that came Catherine Dyer who, to this day, is the definitive Mrs Bailey. He filled pages of Vogue with all these women, making fashion stars of them, but he also created intimate, occasionally visceral visual testaments to all of them as well. It's remarkable how undatable those pictures are. A sequinned Deneuve on the set of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort with her sister Françoise Dorleac in 1967? Tell me that's not yesterday, cigarette aside (everyone is smoking in Bailey's pictures). David Bailey and Catherine Deneuve, 1965. (Getty Images) It's not only photos by Bailey, it's also photos of Bailey that resonate. The image that Bert Stern captured of him photographing proto-supermodel Veruschka in 1965 surely shaped a key scene in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up two years later with Veruschka again and David Hemmings as superstar lensman Thomas. Their give-it-to-me-baby writhing birthed the cinematic coitus-by-camera cliché that climaxed with Austin Powers decades later. Producer Carlo Ponti originally wanted Bailey for the part of Thomas. Meta before such an idea even existed. David Bailey and Veruschka, 1965. (Getty Images) My own favourite is another image from '65. Bailey is showing a model how to pose. He's wearing a white singlet, tight slacks, Cuban heels, a right bit of trade with a touch of fashion fey. Picture that touching down in Vogue's refined universe. Bailey was in the vanguard of a working class invasion that erased conventional British stuffiness with a brazenly confident sense of self. When he showed up with Shrimpton in Diana Vreeland's office in New York, she proclaimed to all and sundry, 'England has arrived!' She immediately grasped that their mere appearance marked a significant shift in the fashion zeitgeist. Nearly twenty years ago, when I interviewed him for Fantastic Man magazine, Bailey was fabulous, piss and vinegar, spraying bon mots all over the studio. 'I'm not interested in photography, I'm interested in the relationship you can have with somebody,' he declared. 'Avedon said it's got nothing to do with sex, I think it's all about sex.' And, still later, 'Your photos are your friends and you're friendly with people because they have something you don't have.' Marie Helvin, 1979. (© David Bailey) That reminded me of something one of his best photographer friends Bruce Weber once said, about photographing what you wish you were. Bailey has been labelled 'a monstrous narcissist.' To me, it feels more like he was a perpetual outsider, trying to isolate what 'in-ness' was. Perhaps that was the fascination of portraiture for him, the pursuit of other people's truth as opposed to the superficiality of his fashion work. He very deliberately never photographed his hero Picasso because he was scared to disrupt the fantasy he'd created around the artist. Another dream subject that got away was Fidel Casto. Penelope Tree as Mickey Mouse, 1970. (© David Bailey) We talked about how awful the clothes were in those early fashion shoots with Shrimpton. 'If you can see the clothes, even the worst fashion picture is at least a document of a period,' he said then. Decades earlier, he'd told another interviewer, 'To leave a record is the most you can hope for in photography.' The documenting of social groups is clearly something Bailey has always excelled at. He loved identifying nature's species when he was a boy. As a precocious young adult, he followed Box of Pin-Ups with 1969's stunning Goodbye Baby and Amen, a sign-off to London's Swinging Sixties that stings now with the intrusion of brutal reality. By then, the Krays had been arrested and imprisoned for murder, and seven months after Bailey photographed her with Polanski, Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson family. Those portraits have become a kind of memento mori because so many of the people in them are dead. Years ago, Bailey told me why, as far as he was concerned, they didn't live on in his pictures. 'They can't fuck, and if you're not fucking, you're not living.' A sentiment shared by his hero Picasso. Or, should I say, an un-sentiment, because there was no sentimentality in Bailey. David Bailey, Self Portrait. (© David Bailey) And yet he kept on making his extraordinary documents. In December 1965, Bailey shot the entire Christmas issue for Vogue. In June 1998, he created a 'Cool Britannia' portfolio, again for Vogue. He's currently working on a new 'Box of Pin-Ups,' these ones using Polaroid 55 film, with a solarised effect. Rod Stewart popped in for a pic. But Bailey may already have created his dernier cri when it comes to mapping the culture. Over the last three months of 2023, he shot a portfolio of 100 designers, models, artists, musicians and assorted faces for stylist Katie Grand's Perfect Magazine. After the death of her husband, Grand was in a nostalgic mood. 'I suppose I was feeling especially sentimental about imagery and preserving people's legacies and having huge respect for the process of photography.' She'd never worked with Bailey but one particular shoot of Marie Helvin in swimsuits and coloured stockings, Vogue Italia 1976, was a watershed for her. 'The stockings were cut-down tights in bright colours which looked great against the blue sky,' Grand remembers. 'I was surprised to hear he styled the shoot.' There are portraits in Perfect that could slot right in with those Sixties works of genius: the choreographer Wayne McGregor, the hairstylist Anthony Turner, the photographer David Sims and his son Ned. 'Bailey liked the idea of a new set of subjects,' says Grand. 'Some were people he suggested and had his own nostalgia about — Penelope, Marie, Jerry, Naomi, Kate — and then we brought quite a youthful cast. I think he wanted to retain some control over the cast, which was understandable given how many people we shot. And also, he needed to be inspired. The rules were no more than five people a day, and no agents or PA's on set.' Jerry Hall. (© David Bailey) David & Ned Sims. (© David Bailey) Malak Kabbani & Fenton Bailey. (© David Bailey) Thinking about that work, and all the faces in all the work that became before it, it occurred to me that there's been one unifying thread. Glaringly obvious, actually. As much as Bailey's pictures capture particular moments in time, they ultimately defy it, because they're not about time, they're about place. And that place is London. The love of his life. In that sense, Bailey stands for everything the city has always stood for in fashion: a renegade spirit that every so often manages to change the world. As long as there's London, there'll always be David Bailey.
India Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Words of War: GBU-57 Massive Ordinance Penetrator
When we talk about non-nuclear bombs, there is perhaps nothing that comes close to the US Air Force's GBU-57, a 12-tonne monster also known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It's the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US this isn't your typical explosive. The MOP isn't designed to flatten buildings. It's designed to burrow through them — deep underground, into fortified enemy bunkers. In military speak, it's a true 'bunker buster.' advertisementWHY IS THIS RELEVANT NOW?Because during Operation Sindoor -- India's recent military operation targeting terror hubs and installations inside Pakistan -- one name kept surfacing: Kirana Hills. Located in Pakistan's Punjab province, the Kirana Hills have long been suspected of housing underground nuclear storage and command the Indian Air Force has denied striking the area. In a recent press briefing, Air Marshal AK Bharti even went so far as to say he wasn't aware of any such facility at Kirana Hills. But a subtle smirk on his face while saying so has only fueled A STRIKE HAD if India had targeted fortified underground bunkers -- such as those believed to exist at Kirana Hills -- it would require a bomb with deep-penetration the GBU-57 by BoeingWeighs over 13,000 kgCarries 2,500 kg of explosivesCan penetrate up to 60 metres underground — roughly the height of a 20-storey buildingMeasures over six metres longThis bomb was made specifically for underground targets like hardened bunkers, tunnel complexes, or nuclear ABOUT INDIA?advertisementIndia doesn't possess a bomb on the scale of the GBU-57. However, it does have access to bunker-busting precision the 2019 Balakot airstrike, India deployed Israeli SPICE-2000 munitions — which are designed to explode inside structures, maximizing internal Rafale jets are also equipped with HAMMER missiles, including variants capable of hitting fortified be clear, there is no official confirmation that Kirana Hills were struck during Operation Sindoor. And the Indian Air Force has denied any such Reel
NZ Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
New Zealand's cruise industry falters as bookings drop 40%
The association's chief executive Jacqui Lloyd told the Herald the decline is 'deeply concerning' for the cruise industry, with cargo and shipping also affected by regulatory, commercial and logistical hurdles. 'This is not a consumer demand issue, it is a supply problem - visitors still want to come here and passenger ratings for NZ are incredibly high, but the cost and complexity for cruise lines means they are shifting their focus to other more welcoming destinations.' Smaller port towns are more likely to be affected by the slump, with Regional Tourism NZ's David Perks saying the potential negative impacts 'could be very significant to individual businesses and their ability to survive'. What's behind the decline? The cruise industry brought $648 million in direct expenditure and supported nearly 12,000 jobs across NZ in the 2023/24 season, which was the largest on record. Yet cruise passenger numbers are expected to fall below 2017/18 levels this season, with only 663 port calls recorded for 2025/26 - down from 1123 in 2023/24. 'A decline in ship visits and passenger numbers means fewer tourism dollars for regional communities, less investment in NZ by global cruise operators, and the potential loss of our reputation as a world-class cruise destination,' Lloyd said. While consumer demand remains strong, cruise operators are being put off by a perfect storm of rising costs, regulatory uncertainty and operational complexity. Government fees, port charges and local levies combined with global fuel price and currency shift pressures have made NZ 'the most expensive cruise destination in the world'. Uncertainty around regulations is also making it harder for cruise lines to plan schedules in advance and recover added costs, creating the perception that NZ is becoming too difficult to include in itineraries. One example impacting long-term planning is the proposed ban on cruise ships entering Milford Sound's inner sound, proposed by the Government-funded Milford Opportunities Project (MOP) in a 2021 masterplan. Biofouling requirements Biofouling management regulations introduced in 2018 have inadvertently disrupted ship itineraries, with Lloyd saying it's become the number one concern for cruise operators. Eight cruise ships turned themselves away and three required cleaning over the 2022/23 season. Only one cruise ship required cleaning in 2024/25, but operators still worry they'll be denied entry and have adjusted their schedules accordingly. 'Even when cruise lines meet standards, the threat of being denied entry over minor issues creates unacceptable financial and brand risk,' Lloyd said. 'Cargo and shipping sectors also share these concerns, making this a broader supply chain issue.' With about 90% of invasive marine species arriving in NZ on international ship hulls, the Ministry for Primary Industries' biofouling requirements - among the strictest in the world - are designed to protect Aotearoa's maritime industries and marine environment. But while cruise lines aren't opposed to strong environmental protections, there is currently no way to clean ships within NZ waters if they're denied entry. New Zealand port cleaning restrictions and the lack of a dry dock in Australasia (the closest is in Singapore) mean the only way to clean a ship here is through using a dive team at sea outside the 12-nautical-mile limit. Biosecurity NZ's northern regional commissioner Mike Inglis said this method can be a 'difficult and complex task often dictated by the weather'. 'To help manage the risk, we've been asking cruise lines to submit all their documentation and risk management plans as early as possible so we can provide early notification of any cleaning requirements, helping avoid voyage delays.' Advertise with NZME. Cruise operators have generally adapted well to the rules, Inglis said, which is 'evident in the number of cruise ships arriving in our waters fully compliant with our rules'. Lloyd said work was under way to find a local solution for biofouling compliance, including in-port cleaning trials at Port of Auckland, so cruise lines had 'the confidence and certainty they need to plan deployments without fear of denial'. Regional impact The cruise downturn is expected to hit the regions harder, Perks said. In smaller cities or towns like Napier, Akaroa and Picton, cruise traffic provides crucial support for the local economy. 'In each region there would be tourism businesses for which the cruise passengers would be their bedrock.' While NZ's cruise industry operates seasonally from October to April, Perks said 'its reliability has provided businesses with an ability to invest and grow, in a way which is now being challenged'. Lloyd said regional towns 'lack the economic diversity of larger cities', so the decline in cruise arrivals can disproportionately affect local jobs and incomes. 'Many of these towns are also off the main international touring route, so cruise plays a major role in bringing international visitors and spend to their communities.' Larger cities will likely feel the drop differently. For Auckland, fewer cruise departures mean fewer visitor nights, while Wellington stands to lose foot traffic during the city's quieter January period. Tracey Black, acting manager of tourism at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, said recent Government research published in April confirmed a decline in cruise activity across Australia, NZ and the Pacific. The economic impact of this is unclear, but Black said the Government is steadfast in supporting tourism growth. 'We are working collaboratively with the cruise industry on what is needed to grow the value of international tourism.' Lloyd said the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality, Louise Upston, has been 'really proactive and supportive' in trying to improve outcomes for the industry. 'The Minister and officials are engaging directly with cruise lines, listening to the concerns,' Lloyd said, turning to the April research as proof 'that the benefits of cruise to NZ continue to outweigh the direct costs'. However, as cruise lines plan their voyages two to three years in advance, Lloyd said urgent action needs to be taken before NZ starts getting left off future itineraries.
Business Wire
08-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Visual Matrix's Suchi Reddy Honored by the Dallas Business Journal's 12th Annual Women in Technology Awards
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dallas Business Journal has selected Suchi Reddy, Chief Information Officer at Visual Matrix, a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the hospitality industry, as one of its honorees for the 12th Annual Women in Technology Awards. The yearly program celebrates 20 trailblazing women across the Dallas business community for their contributions to advancing technology across the region. 'We strive daily to provide the best possible technology and service to our hotel partners, and we stand behind our years of service to the Dallas community and hoteliers everywhere.' Suchi Reddy, CIO, Visual Matrix Share Reddy is a 25-year veteran of the technology and hospitality industries, where she has a proven track record in project management, quality control, and information security across various industries. She leads Visual Matrix's information security, operations, compliance, and quality assurance teams, where she works to provide efficient, impactful services to hotel leaders every day. In addition to this award, Visual Matrix was recently recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as one of the region's 'Best Places to Work' for a second consecutive year. The publication has been celebrating Dallas businesses for 22 years, and Visual Matrix claimed the fourth-best position in 2024 thanks to its reputation as an innovator committed to improving hotelier operations and profitability, its focus on worker retention, and its ongoing stake in the local community. 'Suchi is a core part of our team and a key part of Visual Matrix's success,' said Georgine Muntz, CEO of Visual Matrix. 'We are excited to see her recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as one of our region's most influential women in technology, and are thrilled for the future of hospitality technology with her at our side.' 'I am honored to receive this recognition from the Dallas Business Journal and the wider business community,' Reddy said. 'We strive daily to provide the best possible technology and service to our hotel partners, and we stand behind our years of service to the Dallas community and hoteliers everywhere.' For a closer look at what makes Reddy such an integral part of the Visual Matrix team, readers are welcome to visit the company's video portal: To learn more about Visual Matrix, visit About Visual Matrix More than 3,000 properties in 30+ countries worldwide choose the Visual Matrix hospitality operating system to optimize hotel operations and serve guests from reservation to return stay. Our system includes a game-changing PMS and an independent mobile operating platform (MOP) for use with Visual Matrix and most other PMS systems. Our PMS offers powerful features and key integrations that are easy to use, like revenue management with automated rate/discount tiering, a fully integrated channel manager, and a mobile app for tracking performance on the go. MOP automates routine tasks and streamlines communication to keep front desk, housekeeping, and maintenance staff focused on guests. It also includes a built-in panic button as an Emergency Safety Device to help keep hotel staff from harm. For more information, visit
Hospitality Net
08-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Visual Matrix's Suchi Reddy Honored by the Dallas Business Journal's 12th Annual Women in Technology Awards
Dallas - The Dallas Business Journal has selected Suchi Reddy, Chief Information Officer at Visual Matrix, a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the hospitality industry, as one of its honorees for the 12th Annual Women in Technology Awards. The yearly program celebrates 20 trailblazing women across the Dallas business community for their contributions to advancing technology across the region. Reddy is a 25-year veteran of the technology and hospitality industries, where she has a proven track record in project management, quality control, and information security across various industries. She leads Visual Matrix's information security, operations, compliance, and quality assurance teams, where she works to provide efficient, impactful services to hotel leaders every day. In addition to this award, Visual Matrix was recently recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as one of the region's 'Best Places to Work' for a second consecutive year. The publication has been celebrating Dallas businesses for 22 years, and Visual Matrix claimed the fourth-best position in 2024 thanks to its reputation as an innovator committed to improving hotelier operations and profitability, its focus on worker retention, and its ongoing stake in the local community. Suchi is a core part of our team and a key part of Visual Matrix's success. We are excited to see her recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as one of our region's most influential women in technology, and are thrilled for the future of hospitality technology with her at our side. Georgine Muntz, CEO of Visual Matrix I am honored to receive this recognition from the Dallas Business Journal and the wider business community , Reddy said. We strive daily to provide the best possible technology and service to our hotel partners, and we stand behind our years of service to the Dallas community and hoteliers everywhere. For a closer look at what makes Reddy such an integral part of the Visual Matrix team, readers are welcome to visit the company's video portal: To learn more about Visual Matrix, visit About Visual Matrix More than 3,000 properties in 30+ countries worldwide choose the Visual Matrix hospitality operating system to optimize hotel operations and serve guests from reservation to return stay. Our system includes a game-changing PMS and an independent mobile operating platform (MOP) for use with Visual Matrix and most other PMS systems. Our PMS offers powerful features and key integrations that are easy to use, like revenue management with automated rate/discount tiering, a fully integrated channel manager, and a mobile app for tracking performance on the go. MOP automates routine tasks and streamlines communication to keep front desk, housekeeping, and maintenance staff focused on guests. It also includes a built-in panic button as an Emergency Safety Device to help keep hotel staff from harm. For more information, visit More than 3,000 properties in 30+ countries worldwide choose the Visual Matrix hospitality operating platform to optimize hotel operations and serve guests from reservation to return stay. Our system includes a game-changing PMS and housekeeping & maintenance app (MOP) for use with Visual Matrix and most other PMS systems. Our PMS offers powerful features and key integrations that are easy to use, like revenue management with automated rate/discount tiering, a fully integrated channel manager, and a mobile app for tracking performance on the go. MOP automates routine tasks and streamlines communication to keep the front desk, housekeeping, and maintenance staff focused on guests. It also includes a built-in panic button as an Emergency Safety Device to help keep hotel staff from harm. For more information, visit Lauren Crocket Visual Matrix CMO 214.291.4000 ext 119 View source
