Edinburgh Stardust: Bailey Style

I had a meeting in Edinburgh today. On the way back to Waverley Station, I took some time out at the Bailey's Stardust exhibition.
I wasn't reviewing it for The Herald which meant I could just take it all in and enjoy.
The black and white portraits are the real stars of this show.
David Bailey has photographed everyone who was anyone from the Swinging Sixties to date; from Mick Jagger to Francis Bacon to Vivienne Westeood to Kate Moss, as well as a whole host of folk in between whom you've probably never heard of but who were pretty damned cool!
There's artists galore in the mix and I particularly liked his photo of Joseph Beuys with his intense, slightly lop-sided staring eyes.
Bailey has grown old with the generation who refuse to grow up.
There was a lot to take in. As well as photographs, Bailey makes quirky sculpture and collage-style paintings.
The latter are not so powerful as the photographs. It's interesting though to see his 'process' - hate that expression but you know what I mean!
The most affecting pictures were the ones he took in the Sudan around the time of Live Aid in 1985. Somehow, I wasn't expecting to see such harrowing imagery.
His pictures of the east end of London in the early 60s were very powerful too.
What a restless, creative soul David Bailey is.
I loved the glass cabinets filled with Bailey memorabilia. Particularly the RAF medical dispensation from 1957 stating that he was a vegetarian and should 'not be force fed'.
Ends on October 18th.