Shortly after the photographer Angus McBean died, at the ripe old age of 86, his former lover and model Quentin Crisp published a short tribute to him. McBean, wrote Crisp, had dedicated his life to acting out a fragile illusion: 'He played that life was happy; that all women were lovely - even Edith Evans; he played that love was everywhere. This philosophy made him delightful to be with, impossible to talk to and infinitely sad… He worked hard for his success, and when it came he enjoyed it chiefly because it brought him into contact with so many illustrious people… he was genuinely star-struck. I never heard him speak badly of anyone well known. In his eyes, celebrity made anyone adorable. In spite of his success he remained mysteriously modest.' ...The best of his later pictures are the cheerfully silly photomontages he designed as Christmas cards.... McBean is confirmed as a proficient and gently flattering exponent of the photographic portrait - but not as he himself might cheerfully have acknowledged, a truly great one. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3653869/So-famous-so-adorable.html] Angus McBean (8 June 1904-9 June 1990); Welsh photographer, set designer and cult figure associated with surrealism. Born in Newbridge, Monmouthshire, Wales. Despite the surname and the family's claim to be head of the sub-clan MacBean, they had been Welsh for generations.... ...his work... is now eagerly sought by collectors and his work sits in many major collections around the world. ...Evidence of his innovative photographic techniques and surrealist themes can be found in the many Christmas cards he created. For these images he constructed elaborate sets along with detailed props and miniatures, often taking weeks to produce the desired effect. ...In 2007, 7 original color slides of McBean's photographs for the Beatles album cover Please Please Me were accidentally thrown in the bin at EMI headquarters. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_McBean] undefined

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