Angus McBean

Angus McBean (8 June 1904 – 9 June 1990) was a Welsh photographer, set designer and cult figure associated with surrealism.

Angus McBean was born in Newbridge, Monmouthshire in South Wales on 8 June 1904. Despite the surname and the family's claim to be head of the sub-clan MacBean, they had been Welsh for generations. His father, Clement Philip James McBean, was a surveyor in the mines and the family moved frequently around Wales with his job. McBean attended Monmouth School and Newport Technical College, at which time he developed an interest in photography. Fascinated by the apparently magical properties of this process, Angus 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.

At the age of fifteen McBean took part in the amateur dramatics productions at the Lyceum Theatre in Monmouth, where he was mostly involved in the creation of sets, props and costumes. Later in life he credited this experience as being the start of his life-long interest in dressing up and performing.

In 1925, after his father's early death, McBean moved with his mother and younger sister Rowena to a three bedroomed cottage at 21,Lowfield Road, West Acton. For the next seven years 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's and grew his distinctive beard to symbolise the fact that he would never be a wage-slave again. Meeting the stage designers Motley Theatre Design Group he helps in creating theatrical props, including a commission of medieval scenery and some shoes for John Gielgud's 1933 production of Richard of Bordeaux.

McBean's masks became a talking point in social columns, and were much admired by the leading London West End photographer Hugh Cecil. Cecil offered him an assistant's post at his New Grafton Street studio where McBean learnt how to retouch large glass negatives and other useful techniques, whilst working on his own photographs in the evenings. Having learnt the secrets of Cecil's softer style, McBean set up his own studio 18 months later in a basement in Belgrave Road, Victoria, London.

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