Adrian John Flowers (11 July 1926 – 18 May 2016) was a British photographer known for his portraits of celebrities that included

Twiggy Dame Lesley Lawson (''née'' Hornby; born 19 September 1949), widely known by the nickname Twiggy, is an English model, actress, and singer. She was a Culture of the United Kingdom, British cultural icon and a prominent teenage model during th ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

Linda McCartney Linda Louise, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, cookbook author, and activist. She was the keyboardist and harmony vocalist in the band Paul McCartney and Wings, Wings tha ...

and

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress. In her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered List of awards and nominations received by Vanessa Redgrave, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony A ...

Early life

Flowers was educated at

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

, Dorset, the son of a former Indian Army officer. His mother was a

Christian Scientist Activists, politicians, and military figures Activists *Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone (1882-1985) – Native American singer and activist * Bonnie Carroll – President and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) *Henry ...

.Adrian Flowers.
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 23 May 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.

Career

Flowers took exams at the

Institute of British Photography An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

in 1950 and set up a studio in

Dover Street Dover Street is a street in Mayfair, London. The street is notable for its Georgian architecture as well as the location of historic London clubs and hotels, which have been frequented by world leaders and historic figures in the arts. It al ...

the same year. He later had a studio in

Tite Street Tite Street is a street in Chelsea, London, England, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just north of the River Thames. It was laid out from 1877 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, giving access to the Chelsea Embankment. His ...

, Chelsea. He was known for his advertising work, particularly for

Benson & Hedges Benson & Hedges is a British brand of cigarettes owned by American conglomerate Altria. Cigarettes under the ''Benson & Hedges'' name are manufactured worldwide by different companies such as Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Philip Morris USA, British ...

cigarettes, and also for his portraits of celebrities that included

and

Amanda Hopkinson Amanda Hopkinson (born 1948) is a British scholar and literary translator. Biography She was born in London, England, to the British journalist and magazine editor Sir Tom Hopkinson and photographer Gerti Deutsch. She gained a BA from the Uni ...

Adrian Flowers obituary
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 30 May 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016. Flowers' assistants included Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy, and

Chris Killip Christopher David Killip (11 July 1946 – 13 October 2020) was a Manx people, Manx photographer who worked at Harvard University from 1991 to 2017, as a Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies. Killip is known for his black and white imag ...

Gerry Badger Gerald David "Gerry" Badger (born 1946) is an English writer and curator of photography, and a photographer. In 2018, he received the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society. Life and career Badger was born in 1946 in North ...

, untitled introduction to ''Chris Killip 55'' (London: Phaidon Press, 2001; ), p. 5

Family

Flowers married Angela Holland, who established Angela Flowers Gallery in 1970 in London. They had four children: Adam, Matthew, Dan and Francesca.

Matthew Flowers Matthew Flowers (born 1956) is a British contemporary art dealer based in London and New York. He is the managing director of Flowers Gallery. Throughout his career he has been on boards and committees of international art fairs and arts institu ...

is the contemporary art dealer who now runs

Flowers Gallery Flowers Gallery, also known as Flowers are two galleries in London (on Cork Street in the West End, and in Shoreditch in the East End), a third in the Chelsea district of New York City, and a fourth in Hong Kong. The gallery represents over ...

. In 1985, Adrian Flowers married a second time to Francoise Lina, a French conference interpreter, and they lived until his death in southwest France.

References

External links

Documentary by Luke Tomlinson
(video) 1926 births 2016 deaths 20th-century British photographers People educated at Sherborne School 21st-century British photographers Photographers from Dorset {{UK-photographer-stub