'Observer Colour Magazine 2003', photographed in London by Jim Lee in 2003, printed by Martin Clark at the RCA, London, 2006.

Resin coated C type colour print by Jim Lee showing female models walking up a stairwell wearing long gowns.The camera used was a Pentax 6/7 format with a 65mm lens. The lighting was set up to achieve a cathedral effect, maximizing the chevrons in the architecture.

Given by Jim Lee

This photograph was shot for the Observer Colour magazine as part of a series over six pages. The fashion director was Jo Adams. It was taken on the ninth floor in the back stairwell of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Knightsbridge. The conceptual idea in this series was to match the elegance of the Yves St. Laurent evening dresses to the location. The visual aspect of the photograph was to give it a feel like an 'Old Masters' painting and the action in the content to make it like a film.

Jim Lee established himself as a leading international photographer based in London, Paris, Milan and New York, shooting for such clients as Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Versace and Yves Saint Laurent. His great breakthrough was meeting the diva of fashion editors, Anna Wintour, at that time the assistant fashion editor at Harpers and Queen, who he regularly collaborated with to produce some of his best work, which continued years later after they both moved to New York.Central to his work is the concept of telling stories which he creates using casts of three or three hundred and extraordinary locations and props. He has recently re-emerged as an active photographer working on numerous magazine editorials with top fashion stylists.

Recently Jim Lee has seamlessly moved into directing TV commercials, his first film was for Levi's followed by several fashion and beauty commercials. In 2003/4 he had six photographs showing in the Ossie Clark retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Printed from the original negatives by a student of the Royal College of Art, London.

This photograph was shot for the Observer Colour magazine as part of a series over six pages. The fashion director was Jo Adams. The concept in this series was to match the elegance of the Yves St. Laurent evening dresses to the location. The visual aspect of the photograph was to give it a feel like an 'Old Masters' painting and whilst the action was intended to make it like a film.

E.11-2006