Wendy Bevan

I always imagine Wendy Bevan to be a beautiful woman with a spirited personality. As a photographer and participator in the thick of London avant-garde life, her diaries would be full of interesting details and surrealist stories. Her printed work always gives a vivid sense of what Bevan’s sensuous, dark, chimerical and exotic life might be. The effect is compelling. Her themes are often dreamlike women depicted like quietly magnificent paintings imbued with a sense of gently haunting magic. The atmospheric colours and photographic techniques of her fashion stories are growing to be more pronounced, scenes transfigured by a richly poetical imagination and a quirky humour. Her visions can sometimes be tough but they’re always filled with a certain tenderness and intriguing melancholy for times past. I know I’ve talked about Wendy Bevan recently. I normally try to bring the fresh intensities of first lust to this blog but I think I’m becoming a devoted fan. I’ve looked at her past shoots for Pop, Grey, Muse, Italian Marie-Claire, Lula, the Financial Times and Vogue Russia: it feels like she constantly raises the senses with her stimulating fashion images, revealing a touching vulnerability and the occasional hint of ordinariness that comes as a surprise. At first glance, there is always the inevitable celebration of nostalgia and eccentricity but look closer and you’ll discover a seamless kaleidoscope of ideas based on the fusion of classical photographic compositions, colours and a contemporary subtle sensuality reminiscent of Paolo Roversi.
Apart from looking at fashion photography, I’ve also been confronting my passion for Japanese food head on. Last Saturday, I was treated to dinner at Umu, a Kyoto style Michelin star restaurant in Mayfair. The food was ridiculously delicious (apart from my prawn tempura, the batter was a little too thick) and the flavours wonderful. Had it not been for the prices, I would have indulged in more dishes until the table was no longer visible! Crazy excesses… I hope to renew the experience soon but in the meantime my local, Jin Kichi, will have to do.

All pictures courtesy of Wendy Bevan