I have had the pleasure of being the hairdresser for famed photographer Clive Arrowsmith and his clients over the years when I was one of the few session hairdressers of the day in London.
Arrowsmith’s clients were the great magazines, Vogue, Tatler, Nova, and Harpers, along with some of the most renowned advertising agencies of the day that had a clientele in the beauty product industry, including Revlon and Max Factor.
Arrowsmith, an internationally celebrated portrait and fashion photographer, left North Wales at the age of 17 and headed for London. He had just finished studying at Queensferry School of Art, which was across the river from the Liverpool School of Art where a certain John Lennon was studying. As a fellow art student, Arrowsmith spent some of his teen weekends in Liverpool sleeping on the floor of the flat shared by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. At the time they were called the Quarry Men. They later, of course, became The Beatles.
“It was an amazing time. I remember asking George if I could have a go on his new Stratocaster guitar, and him saying ‘No’ even though I offered him my six pack of beer. We laughed about this years later,” says Arrowsmith.
In the years since, Arrowsmith has carved a niche for himself as a photographer, director (videos and commercials) and also as a songwriter. He has photographed His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Michael Caine, Liv Tyler, and a multitude of stars from the celebrity and fashion firmament. His vast archive of portraits also includes many British prime ministers, such as Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.
Arrowsmith has worked very closely with Sir Paul McCartney and shot the cover of the legendary album “Band on The Run” and “Wings At The Speed of Sound,” and took a large collection of portraits of McCartney and his wife at the time, Linda. He also worked closely with George Harrison on many occasions and photographed him with Ravi Shankar.
Fashion has been a huge part of Arrowsmith’s career, having photographed the collections for Vogue and all the great designers: YSL, Yamamoto, Tom Ford, Gucci, Vivien Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. For the past two years he has been collating all the work he did for Vogue in the ‘70s and ‘80s, most of which was styled by Grace Coddington in a book called “Arrowsmith: Photographs From Vogue.”
“After many requests I felt it was time to put all these images together. I did portraits of David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Alain Delon, and Mama Cass. There are beautiful fashion shots taken in 1970s New York with my former girlfriend, the model Ann Schuaffus,” he said.
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