Lichfield in Retrospect

Lichfield is a British peer by birth whose decision to become a photographer after Army servicewedding portraits at firstwas considered so unsuitable an occupation his allowance was cut in 1962. But as the '60s revolution (an affair more social than political in England) gradually enabled entertainers and artists, photographers included, to hurdle social barriers, he in due course photographed royalty and other eminences of print, stage, screen, fashion and travel on commission from prestigious magazines like Queen and Vogue . We learn all this from urbane commentary by former Debrett's Peerage writer Mosley, who also contributes essays on manners and mores of the '70s and '80s related only indirectly to Lichfield's photography. In 205 plates we see Prince Charles and Diana, Noel Coward, Susannah York, Morgan Fairchild, Brooke Shields et al., and many titled children, ballet dancers, rock stars, painters, jockeys and so onall in a suave and unruffled but graphic style appropriate to a master photographer who delights in his work. (Nov.)