David Hamilton (photographer)

David Hamilton (15 April 1933 – 25 November 2016) was a British photographer and film director best known for his nude images of young women and girls.

Hamilton grew up in London. His schooling was interrupted by World War II. As an evacuee, he spent some time in the countryside of Dorset, which inspired some of his work. After the war, Hamilton returned to London and finished his schooling.

His artistic skills began to emerge during a job at an architect's office. At age 20, he went to Paris, where he worked as graphic designer for Peter Knapp of Elle magazine. After becoming known and successful, he was hired away from Elle by Queen magazine in London as art director. Hamilton soon realised his love for Paris, however, and after returning there became the art director of Printemps, the city's largest department store. Hamilton began photographing commercially while still employed, and the dreamy, grainy style of his images quickly brought him success.

His photographs were in demand by other magazines such as Réalités, Twen and Photo. By the end of the 1960s, Hamilton's work had a recognisable style. His further success included many dozens of photographic books with combined sales well into the millions, five feature films, countless magazine publishings and museum and gallery exhibitions. In December 1977, Images Gallery in Manhattan showed his photographs, at the same time that Bilitis was released. At that time art critic Gene Thornton wrote in The New York Times that they reveal "the kind of ideal that regularly was expressed in the great paintings of the past". Hamilton has said that his work looks for "the candor of a lost paradise". In his book Contemporary Photographers curator Christian Caujolle wrote that Hamilton worked only with two fixed devices: "a clear pictorial intention and a latent eroticism, ostensibly romantic, but asking for trouble". In 1995 Hamilton said that people "have made contradiction of nudity and purity, sensuality and innocence, grace and spontaneity. I try to harmonize them, and that's my secret and the reason for my success". Besides his main theme of depicting young women Hamilton made pictures of flowers, men, landscapes, farm animals, pigeons and photographic still lifes of fresh fruits. Several of his photographs look alike oil paintings. Most of his work gives an impression of timelessness because of the absence of cars, modern buildings and advertisement boards. In 1976 Denise Couttès explained Hamilton's phenomenal success on page 6 of The Best of David Hamilton. She wrote that his images expressed "escapism. People can only escape from the violence and cruelty of the modern world through dreams and nostalgia".

His soft focus style came back into fashion at Vogue, Elle and other fashion magazines from around 2003. Hamilton was in a relationship with Mona Kristensen, who was a model in many of his early photobooks and made her screen debut in Bilitis. Later he married Gertrude Hamilton, who co-designed his book The Age of Innocence. but they divorced amicably.

Hamilton divided his time between Saint-Tropez and Paris. Since 2005 he had been enjoying a revival in popularity. In 2006 two new books were published: David Hamilton, a collection of captioned photographs, and Erotic Tales, which contains Hamilton's fictional short stories.

As much of Hamilton's work depicts early-teen girls, often nude, he was the subject of some controversy including child pornography allegations, similar to those which the work of Sally Mann and Jock Sturges have attracted. Several of Hamilton's books were banned in South Africa for moral reasons.

In the late 1990s, conservative Christian groups in America protested unsuccessfully against bookstores that stocked Hamilton's photography books. As Chris Warmoll, writing for The Guardian in 2005, commented "Hamilton's photographs have long been at the forefront of the 'is it art or pornography?' debate."

Hamilton in 2012

In 2005, a man was convicted for being in possession of 19,000 images of children, including photos by Hamilton. The images were found to be in the lowest indecency rating. In response, Glenn Holland, Hamilton's spokesman, said: "We are deeply saddened and disappointed by this, as David is one of the most successful art photographers the world has ever known. His books have sold millions". In 2010, a man was convicted of level 1 child pornography for owning four books, including Hamilton's The Age of Innocence as well as Still Time by Sally Mann, which he purchased from a bookstore in Walthamstow, London. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 2011, with the judge calling his conviction "very unfair" and criticising the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for prosecuting him. The judge concluded that "If the [CPS] wishes to test whether the pictures in the books are indecent, the right way to deal with the matter is by way of prosecuting the publisher or retailer – not the individual purchaser."

On 22 October 2016, in the French talk-show Salut les Terriens! on TNT C8 channel, the host Thierry Ardisson named Hamilton as the alleged rapist of now radio RTL presenter Flavie Flament. According to Flament the acts were committed when she was 13 years old, in Cap d'Agde, Hérault, South of France. She mentions them in her novel La consolation, a romanticized story based on her alleged life experiences. Flament's brother has called certain revelations in her book into question. On 22 November 2016, Hamilton issued a statement threatening legal action against his accusers. When contacted by the French press agency AFP, Hamilton declared that he was not to blame. "I didn't do anything wrong", he affirmed, while confirming only that he took a portrait of Flament, "29 or 30 years ago". Flament put the portrait on the cover of La consolation.

On 17 November 2016, the weekly news magazine L'Obs published anonymous accounts by three other former models who claimed to have been raped by Hamilton. One day later Flament confirmed that the alleged rapist in her book was Hamilton.

On the evening of 25 November 2016, Hamilton was found dead in his Paris apartment with a plastic bag over his head. The autopsy identified asphyxiation as the cause of death. Suicide is the leading hypothesis in the investigation.

Books

• Dreams of a Young Girl, 1971 
• Sisters, 1972 
• The Dance (1972)
• Galeria Old Home (1974, Private)
• The Best of David Hamilton (1976)
• Private Collection (1976)
• Bilitis (1977)
• Souvenirs (1978)
• The Young Girl (1978)
• Secret Garden (1980)
• Tender Cousins (1981)
• Silk Wind (1982)
• A Summer in St. Tropez (1983)
• Jun Miho (1983)
• Homage to Painting or Images (1984)
• Maiko Minami (1987)
• Venice (1989)
• Flowers (1990)
• Blooming Minayo: 28 September (1992)
• Twenty Five Years of an Artist (1993)
• The Fantasies of Girls (1994)
• The Age of Innocence (1995)
• Harem: Asami and Friends (1995)
• A Place In The Sun (1996)
• Holiday Snapshots (1999)
• David Hamilton (2006)
• Erotic Tales (2007)

Portfolios

• Souvenirs (1974)
• Flower Girls (1979)
• Shadows of a Summer (1979)
• The White Pebble (1980)
• The Great Silver Photography (1984)

• Bilitis (1977)
• Laura: Shadows of a Summer (1979)
• Tender Cousins (1980)
• A Summer in St. Tropez (1983)
• First Desires (1984)