Dafydd Jones

The Vanity Fair Years: 1988-1996 This selection was shown at the Leica Gallery, Duke St. London. in Feb 2020. 20 x 16 silver gelatine prints. In 1988 Tina Brown invited me to New York to cover parties for Vanity Fair magazine for a month's try-out. I travelled light – just 2 rangefinder Leicas with 3 lenses, a light meter, a couple of tiny Starblitz flashes and one Metz flash. I arrived at JFK in the late afternoon and was met by a driver who took me to the Gramercy Park Hotel. The magazine already had a stuffed diary of parties and events for me to photograph, starting with a book launch that evening at the Royalton Hotel....

The Dangerous Sports club invented bungee jumping and pioneered other dangerous and innovative sports. I first met David Kirke founding member of the Dangerous Sports club at a Piers Gaveston party in Oxford. He called me shortly afterwards to suggest meeting the next day at 5 a.m.at Beachy Head where he planned to bungy jump off. I couldn't make that but did make it to the surreal tea party at the Dutch Ambassador's house. - A beautiful Georgian country house in rolling countryside in Gloucestershire. David buzzed overhead in a microlight. A young Nigella Lawson played croquet from a sedan chair supported by 4 members of the club. A TV crew from Game for a Laugh off-puttingly kept asking everyone to repeat things so their cameraman could catch it. I went to St. Moritz for the years that the annual surreal ski race took place. The Swiss tourist board began advertising the race on the lines of 'watch the eccentric English '. Xan Rufus Isaacs managed to get his double decker ( complete with passengers who had won the trip as a prize in a tv show ) half-way up the slope. The plan was to attach skis to the bus. It was the smart bus conductors uniform he was wearing that probably made the Swiss realise he was deadly serious. It would ahve been REALLY dangerous to go down the slope in a bus. After watching Steve Smithwick's cruise missile go down at high speed narrowly missing the road the Swiss authorities refused to allow the bus to go down on safety grounds. We all stayed at an old fashioned sanatorium converted to a hotel halfway up the mountain that David had wangled from the tourist board. That was where I photographed the attempts to dive into an ice bucket from the bar by Mike Fitzroy and Mark Chamberlain. I look after an archive of pictures of club activities which include an early attempt at skiing on grass in the summer by attaching blocks of ice underneath skis..Despite their worldwide media attention and innovation they have never gained financially. In fact every idea and piece of work they created cost far more than ever came in. It was a seemingly impossible balancing act. There was an early attempt to capitalise on the club's fame by introducing a Dangerous Sports club wine. Much effort went into selecting a decent vintage and designing the label. But no-one knew how to market the wine. I think we were drinking it at a party David gave in Fulham. There was someone there who after drinking his glass of wine proceeded to eat his wine glass. I could hear the crunching sound..

My panoramic technique developed from experiments with an early VR software. I discovered if I was careful I could still stitch the pictures using a hand-held camera. I tried to capture the atmosphere of what was going on at social celebrity events. I wanted to cram in everything. There is an interesting random-surveillance aspect to some of the images as it is not possible to compose in the usual way. I like the feeling of time-passing and cinematic movement. For the pictures to work I can only stand in one place while photographing and simply pan around taking pictures while the scene unfolds. I stitch the pictures together and do as little manipulation as possible although the whole process is a form of manipulation. - I don't like to conceal this and like the feeling of motion that the occasional 'mistakes' give. In some ways the panoramas come closer to paintings I did years earlier at art school. I don't think it would be possible to put together these images without an art training. I did these first for Talk magazine. Then a series on the social season for the Tatler. After seeing my portfolio the art director Jason Shulman designed a slot for a panorama which stayed in the Sundat Telegraph magazine through several different editors and redesigns and grew into an opening double-page For 5 years I was on a roll with this weekly slot in the Sunday Telegraph and obsessed with doing these pictures. The weekly deadline to produce a double-page image was a challenge and also meant I was paid to do what I liked.

Sloane Rangers.

Today almost everyone uses a smartphone, and most of us are addicted. In every social situation the smartphone is not only killing conversation, it’s changing the way we look at the world In 2008, I was sent to Miami to cover a party hosted by Vogue Italia during the Art Basel fair. Although it was one of the week’s most glamorous parties, I noticed a single man apparently oblivious to the fabulous group of women he was with, so engrossed was he in his phone. Maybe he was texting his friends to tell them how lucky he was. Possibly he was a pioneer tweeter. Whatever his fixation, he was definitely missing the action. That was the first time. Then gradually I began to see the same thing happening more and more. The light emitted by the phone can be very flattering, and there is something quite beautiful about someone transfixed in that way, almost in another world, isolated in a crowded scene. Instinctively, at first, I began to seek out these instances. When the then editor of the Oldie magazine, Alexander Chancellor, suggested I contribute a regular feature called ‘The Way we Live Now’, he noticed how many of my pictures featured people glued to their phones. Old people, young people, mothers with children, workmen, cops, cyclists, everyone – in shops, in the street, on the train, in galleries, in bars and restaurants, everywhere. I’ve even seen a man standing at a urinal, a phone cradled in his free hand. Screen time is all-consuming. Screen Time published by Circa. Available from Amazon and all good bookshops. Signed copies available from https://www.setantabooks.com. 12 pictures from the book will be shown at PHOTO NORTH FESTIVAL in Harrogate. 30 Nov- 2 December.

When I started photographing openings the art world was very small. A small group of lenders and donors attended black tie dinners. Artists were rarely to be seen. In the late eighties. Anthony Fawcett, who had been an assistant to Yoko Ono, had the brilliant idea of persuading Becks to provide free beer for openings. The idea caught on and suddenly there was free drink at all openings. Fast forward ten years At Art Basel Miami, the Krug party had an extravagant Krug fountain. By comparison, the Frieze Art Fair (which began in 2003) was cooler, but also more serious. It has its share of glamorous parties, but the social highpoint is the actual Fair itself (unlike Miami where the satellite shows and parties on the periphery were more interesting). 
As a rule, the best exhibitions have the best parties. There is a congratulatory buzz of excitement at seeing something new. When I first saw Damien Hirst's pickled cow and then Rachel Whiteread's beautiful lozenge casts in the early nineties, I could see that the art was something new. It works in reverse as well. There was an opening at the Hayward where the director, perhaps seduced by the name and potential publicity, gave a big show to an artist only a few years out of college. All the celebrities turned up but it was a disappointment and the party felt flat. 
 One of the landmark events in the nineties was a fundraiser at the Serpentine with the Princess of Wales as the guest of honour. Alongside the various aristocrats, actors, writers, pop stars, there was a small group of artists including Damien Hirst and the twins, Jane and Louise Wilson. There was also Jay Jopling, who was making a name for himself as Hirst’s art dealer, who spent the party snogging Annabel Neilson. They seemed to be having the most fun. Unlike most of the room, they were not fazed by the presence of the princess. 
 The art world knows how to party and make the most of having a good time. A party of rich bankers would inevitably be dull. But the mixture of the suits, Russian collectors, socialites, young artists, the newly rich, hangers on, models, some starving artists including journalists, makes for a good party. That formula has worked for the past 15 years. I began doing panoramic pictures to try to cram in more of the madness and variety going on. Later on, when the art world became awash with funny money, it was common for galleries to have parties in exclusive nightclubs like Tramp and Annabels. Or smart London hotels like Claridge’s or the Dorchester. Some galleries had VIP rooms with champagne, and beer for everyone else. Somehow one privileged class seems to have been replaced by another one. And after seeing Damien Hirst holding court at the country house Sudeley in Gloucestershire, having arrived by helicopter, I realised that the new establishment is now so entrenched it really has turned into the old one.


In this series I tried to capture the atmosphere of everything that was going on on the catwalk of the Red Carpet. I wanted to cram in the hangers on, the journalists, the PR's, the security. There is almost a religious feeling about the way these icons are surrounded by admirers. - What is missing from my pictures is the noise of the shouting media wanting eye contact and interviews.

My main work is as a magazine photographer. - But that doesn't mean that I don't do weddings.- The first wedding I photographed privately was a famous rock musician's..I learnt that I hadn't been chosen for my skills as a photographer. But because I'd been recommended as being trustworthy. This was a private wedding and the pictures were simply for friends and family. -Which is usually the case... Throughout my career I have always loved photographing weddings. I like to photograph in an unobtrusive, reportage way. Often in black and white. They are always wonderful occasions with lots of unexpected drama and memorable moments. A journalist acquaintance was surprised to see me at a wedding in upstate New York. He quietly confirmed that it was a union between mafia families.- Luckily the bride's mother was delighted with the pictures. Best of all is England with its ancient churches and buildings. The soft light is beautiful. A sense of tradition often with a twist. If it is windy or rains that can be part of the fun and often produces the best pictures..

In 1998 I discovered if I was careful I could still stitch overlapping pictures using a hand-held camera. Each panorama was taken on film, scanned and stitched using early VR software. - An intensive and time consuming effort. I managed to persuade art directors at the Tatler and Talk magazines to finance my first efforts. The Evening Standard then began using one every week. When the editor changed I switched to the Telegraph thanks to art director Jason Shulman and for an amazing period I was on a roll doing one every week surviving 4 different editors.There is a random-surveillance aspect to some of the images as it is not possible to compose in the usual way. I like the feeling of time-passing and cinematic movement. I did as little manipulation as possible although the whole process was a form of manipulation. I was trying to capture the atmosphere of everything that was going on at social and celebrity events and thought this was the best way to do this.

In 1992 I managed to land a job working for the New York Observer, a weekly newspaper in Manhattan. It was an eccentric newspaper run from a brownstone on the Upper East side. I set up my darkroom in the basement . At the time the paper was edited by Graydon Carter. I was responsible for all the pictures in the paper. I travelled all around New York on foot or the subway taking photographs - a dream. ( Also for me a healthy relief from covering parties. )

Literary New York

Literary London

Research photographs of isabel Goldsmith

This is an ongoing series attempting to photograph the world we live in. I've been trying out different ways of printing black and white digital images.

Over a period of ten years I made various visits to Los Angeles mainly for Vanity Fair magazine. These pictures are from those trips.. Quite a few were used in the Vanity Fair Hollywood. book. These prints are available now as 20 x 16 limited edition signed prints. The first few time I went to Hollywood I covered Swifty Lazaar's party at Spago's in Beverley Hills overlooking LA. Irving 'Swifty' Lazaar was a tiny but forminable character.. He used to leave the dining room constantly to examine the remaining place cards to check out who had the nerve to miss his party.. He would poke me quite hard with his cane to try to control my picture -taking.He was accompanied by a body-guard who stuck right by him the whole time. Along with Elisabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson the newly appointed editor of Vanity Fair Graydon Carter was a guest at what was to be Swifty's last party.- I think this was where he had the germ of the idea of having his own Oscar night party. A year later Swifty sadly died and Vanity Fair began holding their Awards party. The first year along with Alan Berliner we were the only photographers inside. Annie Leibovitz was also asked to photograph but sitting down for dinner she didn't take many pictures . .- Vanity Fair laid on more of a spectacle outside for the media with topiary and branding. ( the branding even on the floor ) Also plenty of space for the press. Some guests seemed to spend more time doing interviews and posing for pictures than enjoying the party.- - Each year the number of photographers covering the party increased exponentially. Each photographer given access seemed to bring an assistant who also took pictures. Most of these photographers demanded eye contact with their subjects making it harder for me to work. I became more interested in the overall spectacle and the panoramic pictures in colour were the result.

I’ve done some of my best work when employed by magazine and websites that sadly died- Some were spectacular failures. Pictures shown here from my time at Connoisseur, Talk magazine, peoplenews.com, , Park Avenue, German Vanity Fair and The First Post.- I learnt a lot and enjoyed working for them but they were all ventures that sadly had the backers or owners close them down. Once a photographer finds a niche they tend to cling on like limpets. (- Finding paid work as a photographer has always been statistically impossible ). When I began experimenting with digital stitched pictures my regular magazine employers weren't interested. - But I was obsessed with doing the pictures and had to move on. Recklessly going from safe well-funded publications to riskier but more exciting start-ups. ( Unfortunately the more established publications decided to take this as a form of disloyalty. ) But now even the really big names of media publishing are being threatened. It looks like these once sucessful publications may not be around much longer.. - Individual, eccentric and edgier publications that have never had much money behind them have more chance of surviving. Perhaps because they have always been efforts of love?

1979. My first job as a photographer was at Butlins holiday camp in Minehead. It turned out to be a chance to practice my photography and learn some people skills. These are a few of my pictures. At the time I was switching between colour and black and white. The colour prints were printed on cibachrome paper. - A difficult chemistry that is now obsolete. Ilford always claimed that cibachrome was archival and it is true! Almost 40 years later the colour still looks perfect. The black and white wasn't developed until the end of the season 5 months later. I thought at the time that although beautiful the colour was too 'arty' and just about the colours. I added to the effect of the colours by mounting the prints on brightly coloured card. I decided that the black and white images carried more meaning.. - Which led to my decision to concentrate on black and white afterwards. 4 of the colour images were exhibited at the Seaside Photographed Exhibition opening at the Turner Contemporary in Margate 25 May 2019 until 8 September. Then Southampton, Blackpool and Newlyn. The black and white images can be seen in a Cafe Royal zine. .