Footnotes

• British photographer Harold Chapman began his career with local and national newspapers and magazines in the UK. In the mid-1950s a chance meeting with Vogue photographer John Deakin saw him change direction and move to Paris to work as a freelance fashion photographer. He set up residence at the infamous 'Beat Hotel', whose inhabitants included Allan Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Gregory Corso, among others. Chapman documented the lives and projects of his fellow residents with extraordinary candour and insight, producing a unique artistic and historic record. When the hotel closed in 1963, Chapman moved on but continued to work for high profile publications such as the New York Times. During this period, he also chronicled the psychedelic street fashions of 1960s London, a city that was very much Europe's new creative heartland following the breakdown of the Beat lifestyle.
  
  The photographer's own notes recall his experiences of London: "In the swinging Sixties, I used to cover the fashion shows and the prêt-à-porter for various American newspapers... It soon became apparent that the foundation of the world's fashion had moved from Paris to the King's Road in London... I used to get out of the underground at Sloane Square and slowly walk along the gutter, photographing whatever caught my eye, until I arrived at World's End. I then returned, walking along the gutter on the other side of the road, to Sloane Square."

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Category: Fine Art / Photographs

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