Featured Exhibition: The Silver Age Of Hollywood

December's featured exhibition is 'Bob Willoughby : The Silver Age Of Hollywood'.

The exhibition is on at Proud Chelsea until 13 January 2013. Entry is free, and the exhibition is open every day from 10am until 7pm.

Proud Chelsea is delighted to present Bob Willoughby: The Silver Age of Hollywood, an exquisite homage to the man widely credited with inventing the photojournalistic motion picture still.


The first “outside” photographer to be hired by studios to document the filming of their movies and in essence capture the soul of each film, Willoughby’s photographs dominated the pages of culture and lifestyle magazines throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. This prestigious collection of limited edition, signed, silver gelatin prints features stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Sean Connery, Frank Sinatra, and James Dean in front of and behind the camera in some of their most iconic motion pictures.

Known for his artfully informal pictures of gamine actress Audrey Hepburn, Willoughby’s big break came when his shot of Judy Garland on the set of “A Star is Born” made the front cover of Life Magazine. Before long the editors of top publications became Willoughby devotees: commissioned to capture behind the scenes moments of big movies, he was often on assignment for as many as seven different publications for any one film and would style his shots according to each magazine’s aesthetic. Willoughby also led the way in technology: commissioning radio controls and soundproof housings for his cameras in order to get the shots other photographers might have missed.

Proud Chelsea is located at 161 King's Road, London, SW3 5XP. Visit the Proud website for more details.