Iain McKell is a British fashion, portrait and social documentary photographer. He has specialized in photographing British

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

s since the 1980s and his work has been published in '' L'uomo Vogue,'' '' i-D'' and ''

The Face The face is a part of the body, the front of the head. Face may also refer to: Film * ''The Magician'' (1958 film) or ''The Face'' * ''The Face'' (1996 film), an American television film * ''Face'' (1997 film), a British crime drama by Antonia ...

.''

Early life

McKell grew up in the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He received his formal education at

Clifton College ''The spirit nourishes within'' , established = 160 years ago , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school , religion = Christian , president = , head_label = Head of College , head ...

, in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. He began working as a seaside photographer in

Weymouth, Dorset Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, on the English Channel coast of England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, south of the county town of Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,427 in 2021. It is the third ...

at the age of 19. After studying

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

at Exeter College of Art and Design, he relocated to London in 1979, where he found work as a commercial photographer.

Career

McKell held a public exhibition in his own studio in 1984 entitled ''Iain McKell LIVE,'' where he photographed members of

The Comic Strip The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The ...

, and many of the visitors. This was followed in 1985 by an open workshop in

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established i ...

, showing his work and a documentary film about the previous year. He was subsequently commissioned by

Smirnoff Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898). It is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff prod ...

and

Red Stripe Red Stripe is a 4.7% ABV pale lager brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica. It was first introduced in 1928 from a recipe developed by Paul H. Geddes and Bill Martindale. It is also brewed in the Netherlands by Heineken. In 1993, Guinness Brewing ...

for commercial brand advertising campaigns. McKell has specialized in photographing British

s since the 1980s, producing photographic studies of

Skinhead A skinhead is a member of a subculture which originated among working class youths in London, England, in the 1960s and soon spread to other parts of the United Kingdom, with a second working class skinhead movement emerging worldwide in th ...

punks Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture ...

Blitz Kids The Blitz Kids were a group of people who frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, London in 1979-80, and are credited with launching the New Romantic subcultural movement. History Steve Strange and Rusty Egan co-hosted th ...

, and rockabillies. He also spent over ten years befriending and photographing

New Age travellers New Age travellers, not completely synonymous with but otherwise shortened to New Travellers (often referred to as "crusties"), are people in the United Kingdom generally espousing New Age beliefs along with the hippie culture of the 1960s (over ...

. The result of this project was the publication of a book and various exhibitions. In 2012 he worked with

Kate Moss Katherine Ann Moss (born 16 January 1974) is a British model. Arriving at the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fas ...

on a photo project for ''V'' magazone titled 'Kate & The Gypsies'. In 2012 he published his third book entitled ''Beautiful Britain,'' comprising a collection of his photographic work between 1970 and 2012.

Books

* ''Fashion Forever: 30 years of subculture.'' New York: Thames & Hudson, 2004 . * ''The New Gypsies.'' Munich: Prestel, 2011. * ''Beautiful Britain: Photographs from the 1970s to the Present.'' Munich: Prestel, 2012.

Exhibitions

*''Then & Now,'' Story Gallery, London, 2001. * ''The New Gypsies,'' Fashion Space Gallery, London, 2011; Acte 2 Photo, Paris, 2011; ''Clic Gallery,'' New York, 2011.

References

External links

*
McKell's_Vimeo
_page.html" ;"title="Vimeo">McKell's Vimeo
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page*Laneri, Raquel (22 September 2011)
"The New Gypsies: Iain McKell's Photos Of A Nomadic British Subculture"
''Forbes''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mckell, Iain Living people Photographers from Dorset People from Weymouth, Dorset Year of birth missing (living people) People educated at Clifton College