Australian photographer who captured the spirit of London’s alternative culture of the 1970s and 80s
In December 1983, the cover of the Observer magazine displayed an enigmatic image, Sonia, of the model Sonia Year wearing a Zephir hat by Stephen Jones. It looked like a painting, but was in fact a photograph, and its appearance in such a setting marked mainstream recognition of a decade’s work by the Australian photographer Robyn Beeche, who has died aged 70 of a stomach tumour.
Beeche had been struck by the interesting shadows cast by the hat. Lighting the scene as if there were 12 o’clock sunlight overhead, she shot it and gave the Polaroid as a reference to the makeup artist Phyllis Cohen, who painstakingly painted the shadows on to Year’s face and body. Then the final image was made in flat lighting.
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