1963. Classic sixties cropping here complements a nice, informal, slightly quizzical pose. A caption on the back of the photo reads:
EARNEST ENQUIRY
please acknowledge: “QUEEN” photograph by NORMAN PARKINSON
CAMERA PRESS LONDON. 8024–4
Parks’ day book identifies the model as Celia Hammond, whom he claims as one of his discoveries. He comes across her at Lucie Clayton, a modelling agency who don’t rate her. Here’s the story as he recounts it:
[The first} day’s shoot produced a cover and several inside pages from a girl who had never been photographed before. Jocelyn Stevens, Editor of Queen magazine, went crazy about her pictures, putting her under exclusive contract for a year; with that contract behind her she became an international star, and a great favourite of Diana Vreeland’s.
…
Her face is not versatile. No great model’s is … When she started modelling, no-one would use her because she was not in the accepted idiom of beauty.
…
Celia has tremendous imperfections, yet I think these add to her attraction because other women feel that if they tried really hard they could look as good as she does.
In a Vogue tribute, Celia acknowledges her debt to Parks:
Without Parks, I probably would have had no career in modelling. My looks were very unfashionable at the time. He told me that he liked girls who looked “real”. When you developed model girl’s habits and mannerisms, he wasn’t interested.
Photo by Norman Parkinson.
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