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Terrible Three

February 17, 2026 - British / Fashion / Photographer / Portrait / Terrible Three

David Bailey

David Royston Bailey was born in 1938 in Leytonstone, in the East End of London, into a working-class family that could scarcely have been further from the world of fashion, art, and celebrity that he would come to dominate. His father was a tailor’s cutter, his mother a machinist. Bailey was severely dyslexic at a […]

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March 4, 2026 - British / Fashion / Photographer / Portrait / Terrible Three

Duffy

The most rebellious of the “Terrible Three”, Duffy created the defining image of David Bowie’s career with the Aladdin Sane lightning bolt, then walked away from photography entirely.

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March 4, 2026 - British / Fashion / Photographer / Portrait / Terrible Three

Terence Donovan

One of the legendary “Terrible Three” who revolutionised British fashion photography, Donovan brought cinematic drama, muscular energy, and a raw East End swagger to the studio.

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RESOURCES

This is where I keep the research — over 200 studies of the photographers, writers, curators and exhibitions I’ve found most compelling. Each entry offers a summary of their practice together with a few examples of their work, where copyright permits.

FOCUS


Browse by genre (use the hamburger menu above on mobile) — Street, Fashion, Landscape, Documentary and others. Most of these categories took shape during my MFA studies and many of the people here appear in multiple categories.

NATIONALITIES

View landmark exhibitions like New Topographics and The Family of Man alongside individual studies of Magnum photographers and many others, like the "Terrible Three", who have shaped the way we see.