The man who shot the sixties

Duffy was one of Britain’s most inventive and influential photographers. Steve Fairclough spoke to his eldest son, Chris Duffy, about his father’s huge talent and enduring legacy.

- Steve Fairclough

Bailey, Donovan, Duffy. No first names needed. This trailblazing photographic triumvirate lit up the 1960s and beyond, arguably becoming more famous than most of its subjects. Dubbed ‘The Black Trinity’ by legendary fashion photographer Norman Parkinson, the three young Londoners pushed the boundaries of photographic style and innovation like nobody who had come before. Unlike the more avuncular Bailey and Donovan, Duffy was a more truculent character, of whom Bailey said, ‘Aggravation and Duffy go together like gin and tonic.’

Never one to suffer fools gladly, Duffy began taking pictures for Vogue in 1957 and for more than 20 years he shot groundbreaking fashion for the likes of Vogue and Elle magazines, iconic portraits such as Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and highly inventive advertising campaigns for Smirnoffand Benson & Hedges. This was all done with adroitness, visual ingenuity and technical excellence, which have never been matched since.

He died in 2010, aged 76, from a degenerative lung disease, only 12 months after he had picked up a camera for the first time in 30 years. Three decades previously, in 1979, Duffy famously decided to end his photography career by burning all his negatives. After one of his assistants told him that the studio was out of loo roll, it reminded Duffy that he was, in his words, ‘senior partner in charge of the toilet bloody paper.’