Contemporary Photographers Australia

Lewis Morley is called "The Man Who Shot the Sixties," and this collection of his black-and-white photography shows why. Dudley Moore, Charlotte Rampling, Brian Epstein, Franois Truffaut: the decade is here, in the style that earned Morley a place among the century's most adept chroniclers. A series of nude portraits of actress Christine Keeler, taken at the height of the scandal that brought down British MP John Profumo, is as much history as art. "I always seem to have been in the right place at the right time," says the photographer. In a career that spanned fashion layouts, advertising, and celebrity portraits, Morley's favorite assignments were for magazines, because of the spontaneity involved. "I like magazine work because it's quick and it's urgent so it relies on an emotional response to a subject, rather than in advertising where everything is minutely planned and you spend more time in meetings than taking photographs," he recalls. His feelings show in street scenes that recall Cartier-Bresson.McKenzie, Ian is the author of 'Contemporary Photographers Australia' with ISBN 9780646305875 and ISBN 0646305875.