ANGUS MCBEAN
Angus McBean was a Welsh-born photographer. His work mainly focused on surrealist self-portraits and portrait photographs of celebrities. Some of his most famous works are portraits of the actresses Vivien Leigh and Audrey Hepburn, and he also photographed The Beatles for their first album cover. In 1942, he was arrested for criminal acts of homosexuality and sent to prison. He was released in 1944. Angus McBean died on June 9th, 1990.
McBean began his career as a mask maker and creating theatrical props. The inspiration he drew from theatre and stage shows is clearly reflected through his photography. Many of his self-portraits are dramatic and theatrical, showing his inspiration taken from his love of plays and theater.
In his series of self-portraits, many of the images include multiple props, again linking back to the theme of the theater.
PROJECTS
While McBean doesn’t have many set specific projects, I will be focusing on his surrealist works, specifically the christmas card images he produced for his friends and family.
In many of his images, the background set is elaborate and detailed, again showing his inspiration taken from theater and stage sets. A common theme throughout his christmas card series is the theme of water. McBean appears underwater in some of the images, as Neptune, or at the beach.
It is thought that McBean used a mixture of small scale models to full size sets in his images, he also use double exposures to create some of his surrealist images.
As seen from this image, McBean was a skilled set builder. The scene was lit and build entirely from scratch by the photographer.
(Christmas Card, 1950)
In this image Angus McBean appears as Neptune, the king of the sea. He likely used mix media to create this final image.
(Game of Photography, 1952 christmas card)
EFFECTIVENESS
In my opinion, all of his photographs are successful and very effective at portraying the feelings created in the image. In many of his surrealist images you can feel humor and lightheartedness coming from the image. The images are all executed perfectly and are all visually extremely interesting.
SOURCES