About the artist
Initiating his career as a commercial artist, French later established his own photography studio in 1948. He dedicated immense care to the staging and positioning of his models, entrusting the shutter's actual activation to his assistants, which included Terence Donovan and David Bailey. Utilizing natural light and minimal contrast, French was a trailblazer in the realm of fashion photography, catering specifically to newsprint reproduction. His marriage in 1942 was to Vere Denning (1910–91), a fashion journalist, who generously donated his photographic collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
