This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/21/sir-norman-parkinson-google-doodle
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Sir Norman Parkinson, fashion photographer, celebrated in Google doodle | Sir Norman Parkinson, fashion photographer, celebrated in Google doodle |
| (5 months later) | |
| Modern fame is a birthday lottery. If you were born a hundred years ago, and did anything, Google might celebrate you on its search page. It's a random way to remember culture heroes – but better than oblivion. | Modern fame is a birthday lottery. If you were born a hundred years ago, and did anything, Google might celebrate you on its search page. It's a random way to remember culture heroes – but better than oblivion. |
| Norman Parkinson, who is, as I write, a Google star because he was born on 21 April 1913, is in no danger of oblivion. This British fashion photographer , who died in 1990, currently has an exhibition of his work at the National Theatre in London and another in Bath: | Norman Parkinson, who is, as I write, a Google star because he was born on 21 April 1913, is in no danger of oblivion. This British fashion photographer , who died in 1990, currently has an exhibition of his work at the National Theatre in London and another in Bath: |
| his pictures are especially loved and admired in the world of fashion . | his pictures are especially loved and admired in the world of fashion . |
| Parkinson's brilliance has everything to do with time, and defying it – for he managed to be something that should be logically impossible, a "timeless" fashion photographer whose art danced through the decades and always remained in style. | Parkinson's brilliance has everything to do with time, and defying it – for he managed to be something that should be logically impossible, a "timeless" fashion photographer whose art danced through the decades and always remained in style. |
| Born just before the first world war, Parkinson lived through a century of extreme change and yet his pictures did not get relegated to yesterday's model. He defined the look of Vogue in the mid-20th century with pictures like his monochrome shot of a thin lady in a very wide hat. Surely, style like that should have made him old hat when the 1960s, miniskirts and sex blew 50s elegance out of the water, yet Parkinson took stunning images that captured the revolution of the 60s. His 1960 photograph Traffic, Queen is a phenomenal distillation of the new spirit. A woman is posed in front of a moving bus: in a typical Parkinson device, she is in sharp focus while everything else is allowed to blur. The bus becomes an abstract mass of speed – Parkinson's use of colour is scintillating, with the slender model wearing a red cap and black dress and leaning against a black and white pelican-crossing signpost. | Born just before the first world war, Parkinson lived through a century of extreme change and yet his pictures did not get relegated to yesterday's model. He defined the look of Vogue in the mid-20th century with pictures like his monochrome shot of a thin lady in a very wide hat. Surely, style like that should have made him old hat when the 1960s, miniskirts and sex blew 50s elegance out of the water, yet Parkinson took stunning images that captured the revolution of the 60s. His 1960 photograph Traffic, Queen is a phenomenal distillation of the new spirit. A woman is posed in front of a moving bus: in a typical Parkinson device, she is in sharp focus while everything else is allowed to blur. The bus becomes an abstract mass of speed – Parkinson's use of colour is scintillating, with the slender model wearing a red cap and black dress and leaning against a black and white pelican-crossing signpost. |
| Speed, modernity, abstraction – and beauty | Speed, modernity, abstraction – and beauty |
| Parkinson's eye was kept fresh by the passion for beautiful women that electrifies his photography across the decades. His 1951 Vogue picture The Art of Travel has a visionary quality as a superbly elegant adventurer walks across a remote wild landscape towards her waiting plane: she is an unforgettable dream image. | Parkinson's eye was kept fresh by the passion for beautiful women that electrifies his photography across the decades. His 1951 Vogue picture The Art of Travel has a visionary quality as a superbly elegant adventurer walks across a remote wild landscape towards her waiting plane: she is an unforgettable dream image. |
| This rapturous sense of glamour never left him. In 1975, he photographed Jerry Hall standing on a stone pedestal, preparing to dive into shallow water: he reveals the strong grace of her body in a frozen moment of surreal formality. The picture fascinated Brian Ferry, who got Hall to pose for a Roxy Music album cover and became her boyfriend. | This rapturous sense of glamour never left him. In 1975, he photographed Jerry Hall standing on a stone pedestal, preparing to dive into shallow water: he reveals the strong grace of her body in a frozen moment of surreal formality. The picture fascinated Brian Ferry, who got Hall to pose for a Roxy Music album cover and became her boyfriend. |
| Parkinson in his 60s was still able to craft pop icons. Parkinson at 100 is well worth celebrating. | Parkinson in his 60s was still able to craft pop icons. Parkinson at 100 is well worth celebrating. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |