The Portraits 1950-1964

National Portrait Gallery Exhibition 1981 curated by Terence Pepper who wrote "Parkinson's Portraits of the Fifties are an important prelude to the tongue in cheek humour of the Sixties culture which refused to take itself seriously. He combines stylishness with humour as he attempts to define the pretensions of Photography". Pepper points out Parkinson's skills at portraying children in a "natural and spontaneous way" as in the Vogue feature print showing a mother (Enid 'Scutty' Boulting) freed from the carousel burden of family life by her Ford Zodiac.

This Archive holds an extraordinary record of two decades of people photographed by Parkinson for Vogue and Queen Magazines.

The Beatles, with George Martin recording at Abbey Road, Peter and Gordon, The Stones (including Brian Jones). A young Cliff Richard, Dave Clark Five, Yehudi Menuhin and his wife Diana, Peter Brook and Paul Schofield, Geraldine Chaplin, Dorothy Parker who told us "Men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses", Ava Gardner, Anita Eckberg, Leslie Caron, Carol Baker, and many Duchesses.

Fay Weldon wrote in 1997 for our Exhibition "Park's @ The Avenue "These are shining examples of his work. Precise icons of a very particular time, but now lodged in our cultural unconcious, and as it turns out - timeless!". They include Ian Fleming eyeing the viewer with an air of 007 nonchalant intrigue through a haze of cigarette smoke. Tom Lehrer 'reflecting the temporary nature of human existance', Audrey Hepburn Mel Ferrer (and donkey), film stars shortly to be married. Parkinson's philosophy was to always portray the best of his sitters, maintaining that "The best photographers are the biggest liars"

They are as he had hoped
"A window to the shimmer of a vanishing England "

National Portrait Gallery