I n Love, Cecil, Lisa Immordino Vreeland offers an evocative portrait of this talented whirlwind whose creative work captured many facets of the 20th century. Using photography, drawings, letters and scrapbooks by Beaton and his contemporaries, along with excerpts from his sparkling diaries and other writings, Immordino Vreeland brings his spirit to life in a way never seen before.
Immordino Vreeland organises the narrative around the circles of Beaton’s daily life: the people who inspired and influenced him, his colourful friends, his fellow photographers, his Hollywood conquests, his English roots and others. This cavalcade offers a shimmering vision of high style, but it also captures often-troubled souls struggling to create the open, tolerant, creative worlds of art and culture that we have inherited today.
Love, Cecil, a documentary on Cecil Beaton opens at London’s Picturehouse Central and Curzon Bloomsbury on Friday 1 December. The accompanying book is available from book stockists.
