'Right from an early age I always had a passion to make the camera do things it was not designed for.' (Angus Mcbean, 1938)
McBean was born in Newbridge, Wales in 1904. McBean loved cinema and film from a young age. In 1924, he moved to London where he worked at Liberty department store for several years. He continued to practice photography while also working as a theatrical model and mask-maker. With his inventive and flamboyant style, McBean soon became the official photographer for many British theatres, including the Old Vic and the Royal Opera House.
In 1935 McBean opened his own photography studio in London and became widely recognised for his prominent style. He had to prematurely close this studio in 1939 due to the start of the second World War and sadly, during the Blitz, many of McBean's photographic plates and glass negatives were damaged. Then in 1942, McBean was arrested for gay acts and went to prison for two years. During these two years, McBean continued to channel his creatitivity and photographed his felow inmates and produced plays for them.
After this McBean opened an even larger studio in Covent Garden and went back to photographing a wide variety of theatre productions, including Britain’s first Black ballet company, Les Ballets Nègres. McBean also produced a series of photographs of LGBTQ+ figures, Tennessee Williams, Quentin Crisp, and others.
In the 1960s McBean started to photograph more musicicans and he photographed the iconic image of The Beatles on the EMI offices balcony for their very first studio album cover.
McBean had a vast and prolific career, spanning from the 1930s to all throughout the 1980s. He continued to work in fashion and pop culture until his death in 1990, on his eighty-sixth birthday.