26/01/2025
R E V I V A L | 2023
After a 25 year hiatus from photography (during which he directed over 600 television commercials, music videos and feature films), Lee returned to prominence in the most unlikely of ways.
Reading the members magazine in 2003, He came across an uncredited image promoting an upcoming exhibition of Ossie Clark. The photograph struck a cord, familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. Thinking nothing more of the deja vu he, retired for the evening.
Fast-forward a few hours, Lee awoke with a start realizing the image was one of his. He was later invited to submit several more, and in 2007, the V&A acquired fifteen images for their permanent archive.
Martin Barnes, senior curator of photography at the V&A said “I first came across Jim Lee’s work when we were doing the OSSIE CLARK exhibition here. We really enjoyed his work, the theatrical quality of it and the high production values, with backgrounds that looked like film sets. We acquired some of his work for the V&A collection. We have really important fashion photography – Cecil Beaton & David Bailey. And Jim was a sort of missing link between the work of the 60’s and 70’s. Jim’s strength is in using colour and movement in a very powerful way. There’s always a supercharging narrative in his work – it’s highly theatrical and very gripping”.
Pictured: Jim submitting his images to the V&A’s permanent archive.
