For most of the 20th century, if you were anybody at all – Hollywood royalty, actual royalty, It girls and society ladies, even, at the end of his life, punks – you were sure to have been photographed by Cecil Beaton.
But his first subjects, the people he honed his skills and built a reputation on, were his sisters, Nancy and Barbara (Baba) whom he frequently dressed up and posed in sets he had designed and built in their family home, sending the resulting photographs to the newspapers for publication.
