"One week in NYC. Do you think the springs will last?"

"No. You're wrong. It's not about the poxy clothes. It's about the street, in actual fact. It's about - the noise, it's about that drunk guy over there. It's about the steam! It's about that, big plastic sign that says 'Twist', which will appear three to four inches above Jean's head in a magazine spread. It's about - the vibe!"

- Aneurin Barnard as David Bailey, We'll Take Manhattan (2012).

Wow. I have just started my new Photo Media project on the Art Foundation course and I am already absolutely buzzing. I have always had a somewhat hidden passion for photography, and I delighted to finally have the opportunity to realise it (in all it's glory, to be modest :P). 

As you can see from above, I adore the work of David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton. They may not be household names (or even that popular with the photographers of today), but oh my, they should be. In 1962, Shrimpton and her then boyfriend/photographer Bailey travelled to NYC on a "young and fresh" shoot for Vogue magazine. Just the story of how they got there is incredible. Bailey was an apprentice at a photography studio where he worked, and Shrimpton was an otherwise undiscovered model who lived on a farm. A short while later, Bailey had his own photography studio and Shrimpton soon became both his lover and only model (though he had previously worked with many women). Their visit to New York is proof that you really can change the way an industry works in a single week. That one week in America turned Jean Shrimpton into the world's first supermodel, and Bailey became the most renowned photographer of the '60s.

When one thinks of how famous these two became, it's astounding how anyone could call a model like Shrimpton "plain" and Bailey's photography "rubbish"...