Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain's leading theatre designer of the 1930s, '40s and '50s who started his career as a portrait painter, after studying at the Slade School of Fine Art. He went on to create settings and costumes for all forms of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as working in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic concepts were perfectly in tune with the times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, that style was becoming unfashionable, and Messel gradually abandoned theatre and built a new career designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.

This photograph shows Oliver Messel in his studio in Pelham Place in London, taken by Angus McBean. Angus McBean was one of the most significant portrait photographers of the 20th century, and was known as a photographer of celebrities. McBean was born in Wales and was the son of a coal mine surveyor. He bought his first camera - a 2½ x 3½ inch autographic Kodak - and tripod as World War I was ending. Fascinated by the apparently magical properties of photography, he wanted to be able to take pictures of people and sold a gold watch left to him by his grandfather to raise the five pounds necessary for the equipment.

In 1925, after his father's early death, McBean moved with his mother and younger sister to Acton, London. He worked for Liberty's department store in the antiques department learning restoration, while his personal life was spent in photography, mask-making and watching plays in the West End theatre. In 1932 he left Liberty and worked as a maker of theatrical props, including a commission of medieval scenery for John Gielgud's 1933 production of Richard of Bordeaux.

McBean's later works included being the photographer for The Beatles' first album, and surrealist work, as well as classic photographs of individuals such as Agatha Christie, Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward.