David Hamilton is a
photographer. He was born in Britain in
1933 and moved to France in
1953, where he still resides. After working for '
Elle' and '
Queen' (before it was '
Harpers & Queen') he became famous in the 1970s for photographing
pubescent girls in a state of undress, usually with lots of gauze and vaseline, in a pseudo-classical style, often accompanied by
poetry and commentary on the unknowableness of the feminine; despite allegations of
child porn his books apparently enjoy higher sales figures than that of all other photographers, something his website goes out of its way to mention.
His 'greatest hits' book, released in 1993, was called '25 Years of an Artist', and there is a sense that he appears to consider himself rather more of a major artistic force than he actually is. The book was filled with shots of Hamilton attending film premieres with c-list European celebrities and minor royalty. The lack of irony is quite jarring from an English perspective.
He has also directed a number of films, starting with 'Bilitis' in 1977, and has been the subject of a song by Laila France (as noted above).
Not to be confused with David 'Diddy' Hamilton the Radio One DJ.