A SIXTIES ICON
The Christine Keeler Photograph

Adapted from an article on the Victoria and Albert Museum website

There is a persistent urban myth that the photograph of Christine Keeler astride an Arne Jacobson chair was taken when she was a model. There are two factual errors in this statement. The chair used (now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London) was in fact a copy, not an original Jacobsen. The hand-hold cut out of the back of the chair was a ploy to avoid the legalities of copyright. The photograph was taken, not on a modelling session, but at a specially arranged session, held at the height of the public furore over revelations of the goings- on of British War Minister John Profumo and a young female, which became known as "The Scandal" or "The Profumo Affair". The events of the Profumo Affair were eventually dramatised as the movie SCANDAL, released in 1989, starring John Hurt as Stephen Ward, Bridget Fonda as Mandy Rice-Davies, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Christine Keeler and Ian McKellen as Profumo.

For a recent Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition, Lewis Morley recalled the photo session which led to the creation of this iconic image:

"This photograph was one of a series of publicity shots for an intended film which never saw the light of day. It was not until 1989 that a film of the 1963 happenings was released under the title Scandal. The photographic session took place in my studio, which at that time was on the first floor of "The Establishment", a satirical night club, part-owned by Peter Cook of "Beyond The Fringe" fame. The satirical sketches took place on a small stage on the ground floor of the club. The Dudley Moore Trio played Jazz in the basement.

"During the session, three rolls of 120 film were shot. The first two rolls had Christine sitting in various positions on the chair and on the floor, dressed in a small leather jerkin. It was at this point that the film producers who were in attendance demanded she strip for some nude photos. Christine was reluctant to do so, but the producers insisted, saying that it was written in her contract. The situation became rather tense and reached an impasse. I suggested that everyone, including my assistant leave the studio. I turned my back to Christine, telling her to disrobe, sit back to front on the chair. She was now nude, fulfilling the conditions of the contract, but was at the same time hidden.

"We repeated some of the poses used on the previous two rolls of film. I rapidly exposed some fresh positions, some angled from the side and a few slightly looking down. I felt that I had had shot enough and took a couple of paces back. Looking up I saw what appeared to be a perfect positioning. I released the shutter one more time, in fact, it was the last exposure on the roll of film. Looking at the contact sheet, one can see that this image is smaller than the rest because I had stepped back. It was this pose that became the first published and most used image. The nude session had taken less than five minutes to complete. It wasn't until I developed the film that I discovered that somehow I had misfired one shot and there were only eleven images on a twelve exposure film. How this came about is a mystery to me.

"Another mystery is why the "Classic Image" has attained such a world wide exposure in all venues, newspapers, magazines, films and advertising, eclipsed perhaps only by Korda's photograph of Che ...... the difference being that Korda's photo was reproduced [without the photographer's permission] on all manner of merchandising, tee-shirts, propaganda leaflets, protest march banners and whenever the word "Revolution" appeared, but the image was used without alteration, remaining true to the original.

"In the case of The Keeler photograph, no sooner had it been published (without my permission in a Sunday tabloid) it was parodied and plagiarised. I photographed David Frost in the Keeler position on the Keeler chair for "That Was The Week That Was" The BBC's weekly satirical programme produced by Ned Sherrin and hosted by David Frost (I was the official photographer for the series run). Gerald Scarfe used one of the other positions on the roll (the side-saddle pose) to lampoon Prime Minister Harold MacMillan.

Above, Morley lampoons himself, with David Frost in the chair and below cartoonist Gerald Scarfe's Private Eye cartoon caricaturing then British PM Harold MacMillan, whose government was brought down by the Profumo scandal.

"It might be right to explain, that the use of a chair turned back to front for the purpose of posing was a device instigated at the outset of photographic portraiture. Because of the need to remain motionless for long periods of exposure that was demanded in those early days, before fast films could capture the decisive moment, the sitter had to be in a position of relative comfort whilst keeping still (post head-clamp period). As a matter of fact there were chairs with padded tops to the back rest specifically constructed for this purpose.

"I came across a self portrait on this selfsame chair in the Keeler position, taken in 1962, a full twelve months before the Keeler photograph was taken. So the parodying actually started before the parodying if you get what I mean. It has been plagiarised, lampooned, copied photographically, drawn and even painted.

"There have been good, bad and indifferent rip-offs of the Keeler images. Too many examples to mention? Yes ! But there is one exception which caught my fancy .... Flattered ? Yes. (It's like the dream of all those Hollywood stars fighting to appear on Sesame Street) ..... Homer Simpson assumes the pose..... "