Biography
Tim Bret-Day’s work as a photographer in music, fashion, and advertising spans four decades, his work is much admired for its vivid and surreal representations. Tim is known internationally for conceiving and executing iconic images for brands and artists alike.
(Tim)
‘I draw the inspirations for my work from an eclectic reservoir of ideas and painters like the surrealist artist of the 1930’s Max Ernst or it might be, Hieronymus Bosch's ‘vision of Hell in his painting ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ crazy to think Hieronymus was dreaming up ideas like that in 1500’s!
Equally, I might be inspired by the way an old lady wears her yellow hat on a bus heading towards Acton. I often find scraps of paper with notes of ideas in my pockets, and I’ve forgotten when and where I wrote them.
‘When I left school without any qualifications all I wanted to be was a drummer in a band, but fate takes us wherever it wants, I guess. I started taking pictures of bands I admired like: The Police, Adam and the Ants, The Clash, The Stones, and many others at concerts. Randomly I moved on to work as an assistant for some of the biggest fashion photographers of the 1980’s and I fell in love with the ephemeral abstract magic of fashion.
I went on to work with the emerging and very influential fashion and cultural magazines of that time like: The Face, ID, Blitz, Harpers, Elle, and Marie Claire. My work for them opened the doors to lots of possibilities and I went on to create campaigns for French Connection, Issey Miyake, Harvey Nichols and others.
‘One of the clients I am most connected with is The Sunday Times whom I collaborated with to produce portraits of David Beckham, Grace Jones, Helena Christensen, Kate Moss and later, David Bowie’. International Influential poster advertising campaigns followed for Agent Provocateur British Airways, Virgin Atlantic. These days I like to collaborate with clients on the essence of what makes a subject or the brand it represents tick before I dive in but I’m up for anything who knows where the highway goes!
As an artist Tim’s work has been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, Paris Photo, and he is represented by JG Contempory in London. Next year he is planning a one man show in London and a definitive book of his work along with a limited-edition Box set.