Overview
Beautiful, unseen, often intimate photographs, taken by Beaton and his last boyfriend, Kinmont Hoitsma, of each other, together with numerous romantic letters they exchanged, published here for the first time.
In 1963, Beaton, the acclaimed royal and celebrity photographer and celebrated diarist was at the peak of his career filming My Fair Lady in Hollywood. Dispirited by forty years of largely unrequited bisexual relationships, quite unexpectedly, he discovered love with an American ex-Olympian fencer and art historian, Kinmont Hoitsma. Beaton’s romantic life had been complicated by the fear of exposure to the shame or blackmail that criminalized homosexuality entailed in Britain at the time. Hoitsma, by contrast, enjoyed a liberated life of uncompromising honesty in the embryonic gay scene of San Francisco.
Defying the legality and convention of the times, Hoitsma and Beaton lived happily together for a year at Cecil’s home in Wiltshire, before accepting that a long-term domestic union was unlikely to succeed. They remained close until Beaton’s death in 1980. In this carefully researched book, Beaton’s bond with Hoitsma becomes the prism through which we gain a glimpse into the photographer’s personal life.
Rounding out this exceptional book and completing the image of a man whose creative world was shaped as much by his camera as by his cultivated environments—are images from Beaton’s other passion: the arts. Beaton’s life was a vivid tapestry woven from the threads of his artistic passions—interior design, fashion, the theater—each deeply informing his aesthetic vision. Together, these disciplines not only shaped Beaton’s art but reflected his belief that beauty could—and should—be orchestrated in every facet of life.
In 1963, Beaton, the acclaimed royal and celebrity photographer and celebrated diarist was at the peak of his career filming My Fair Lady in Hollywood. Dispirited by forty years of largely unrequited bisexual relationships, quite unexpectedly, he discovered love with an American ex-Olympian fencer and art historian, Kinmont Hoitsma. Beaton’s romantic life had been complicated by the fear of exposure to the shame or blackmail that criminalized homosexuality entailed in Britain at the time. Hoitsma, by contrast, enjoyed a liberated life of uncompromising honesty in the embryonic gay scene of San Francisco.
Defying the legality and convention of the times, Hoitsma and Beaton lived happily together for a year at Cecil’s home in Wiltshire, before accepting that a long-term domestic union was unlikely to succeed. They remained close until Beaton’s death in 1980. In this carefully researched book, Beaton’s bond with Hoitsma becomes the prism through which we gain a glimpse into the photographer’s personal life.
Rounding out this exceptional book and completing the image of a man whose creative world was shaped as much by his camera as by his cultivated environments—are images from Beaton’s other passion: the arts. Beaton’s life was a vivid tapestry woven from the threads of his artistic passions—interior design, fashion, the theater—each deeply informing his aesthetic vision. Together, these disciplines not only shaped Beaton’s art but reflected his belief that beauty could—and should—be orchestrated in every facet of life.
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