117 Polaroids

For the past 39 years, David Bailey has photographed his wife Catherine using Polaroid film. Developing organically over the decades, the book grew with no specific purpose in mind. The result is this visual poem, a witness to their working collaborations and personal adventures. In Bailey’s words: “The years went by with great ease and charm. I have been lucky to have such a willing and beautiful subject in my wife and partner in this adventure we have shared together. It came about not by making a plan. All my good ideas seem to happen by accident. My books start with a vague idea, then grow into something I never knew. It’s never what I had in mind, in fact I never have any structure. The pictures just merge together and seem to me in my dyslexic mind that they were meant to be just where they are. The average Polaroid takes a few minutes to develop. This book has taken nearly 40 years.”