He may have photographed everyone from Princess Diana to John Lennon, the Kray twins and the late Queen, but for legendary photographer John Swannell there is one collection of work that holds a special place in his heart.
His pictures for Ritz newspaper, a publication launched in 1976 by photographer David Bailey and journalist David Litchfield that would become influential in popularising celebrity culture in the UK, are among his most precious.
“When I look back at my work,” the 79-year-old tells me over lunch at The Wolseley, “I love these pictures more than anything else I’ve ever done, even Tatler and Vogue.” If you consider John’s glittering career, with a portfolio that includes a constellation of A-list stars (Elton John and Judi Dench to name a few others), it’s quite the statement.
What’s more, this month he’s staging John Swannell: Putting on the Ritz, a selling exhibition of those very photographs – 43 images that he took for Ritz – at the Chris Beetles Gallery in St James’s in what is the 50th anniversary of Ritz’s launch.
Photo credit - Marianne Lah Swannell in white
“There were 12 issues a year and I would be in seven or eight of them,” recalls John, who was Bailey’s assistant at the time. “They used to phone me up and say they were sending over an editor with six garments and can they have the pictures by the end of the week? That was it. I would photograph the six garments, print them all myself and I would send six pictures over and they would be printed as full pages. “It was a photographer’s dream. Everything in Ritz was my choice and that is why the pictures are so dear to me and it helped my career astronomically.”
Inspired by magazines such as Rolling Stone and Andy Warhol’s Interview, Bailey created Ritz to combine celebrity interviews, gossip and fashion photography into a single British publication for the first time. “Ritz was a stylish fashion and photography magazine that evoked the style of Fred Astaire,” Bailey said.
It featured many of the greatest photographers of the time, from Helmut Newton to Terence Donovan, famous writers from Truman Capote to Gore Vidal and interviews with the biggest celebrities of the day including Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson, Andy Warhol and Harrison Ford. “They didn’t have any trouble getting the talent,” says John. “Every important person was in it and hardly anybody said no.”
Photo credit - Debbie Moore and Lindy Christensen (III), 1978
John’s black and white images are artful and occasionally risqué, with subjects including the models Debbie Moore and Lindy Christensen (both feature together in one iconic and rather revealing image) and several striking photographs of his now wife, Marianne. He tells me one particular series that they shot together in Wales remains his favourite.
“It was when we first met. Laura Ashley [the late Welsh fashion designer] phoned up and asked me whether I would do some pictures. I said I didn’t want to do them in the studio, they needed to be in the country. She said: ‘OK, come to Wales and have my house – I’ve got acres of land.’ Marianne and I had the weekend at the house with the servants and everything and that was my favourite shoot.”
John began his career as an assistant at Vogue Studios before, in 1969, aged 21, he started working as Bailey’s full-time assistant. In 1975 he established his own studio and continued his path to becoming one of the country’s best portrait photographers.
Spending time in his company is like accessing a jewel box of memories; the time he smoked a spliff with John Lennon (“I take one puff and I’m coughing my heart out. He said: ‘Give me that joint, don’t waste it!’”), the portrait session with actor John Hurt that turned into a mammoth drinking session (“We were so p***ed that we could barely stand up”) and a scary encounter with the Kray twins (“Someone insulted Bailey and Reggie Kray took offence and they beat the pulp out of this guy in front of us. I dropped the camera, I was so scared.”
Photo credit - Advertising still with paper dress by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, 1994
John has also held a long association with the royal family, having photographed almost all of the leading members from the late Queen (her golden and diamond jubilee portraits) to Princess Anne (official photographs for her 40th, 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays) and – most famously of all – a private sitting for Diana, Princess of Wales with William and Harry in 1994.
“She came into the studio and she was early and I was on the phone to somebody and she tapped me on the shoulder and I turned round and there was Diana, nose to nose. I dropped the phone on the table and then on to the floor. We got on really well; she was incredibly nice.”
While John now splits his time between London and the Lake District, his heart is never far from Mayfair. “Mayfair has always been London for me,” he says. “I’ve always thought it was the most stylish place, with people who dress the best and the best galleries, the best auction houses and the best restaurants.”
Before long we have drifted gloriously into John’s colourful memories of eating at Langan’s back in its celebrity heyday. He’s telling me about its infamous Irish co-founder, Peter Langan, and the occasion when he was on all fours in the restaurant and decided to bite the leg of a customer’s dog. “That is how mad it was,” he says. Sitting on the next table was society gossip Nigel Dempster. The next morning’s headline? “Man bites dog!”
John Swannell: Putting on the Ritz is at Chris Beetles Gallery (8 & 10 Ryder Street) from October 6-24. Admission is free; chrisbeetles.com
 Juergen Teller, All Rights Reserved.jpg)
