Quick Facts
Biography
Joe Gaffney is a British photographer who captured the image of important figures from the 1970s before moving on to fashion photography with French Vogue.
London
Gaffney was educated at the Royal College of Art in London. While at college Gaffney began to develop a career as a portrait photographer. Between 1971 and 1973, he was shooting for Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine. He also photographed Marianne Faithfull and Serge Gainsbourg. Among his other portraits are Cecil Beaton, Jean Muir, Spike Milligan (1974) and Man Ray (Paris, 1975), all of which are in the National Portrait Gallery.
Paris
The first portrait that Gaffney did for French Vogue was of François Truffaut in 1977. He then photographed the model Shaun Casey, and from there became a regular photographer for the magazine.
Later career
In 1985 Gaffney moved to New York when his wife was offered a job there but he was unsuccessful in establishing himself as a photographer in the city and returned to painting in 1989. Later, Kathleen Turner saw some of his work in New York and encouraged him to start working as a photographer again and he completed a shoot for Dazed & Confused.