Christine Keeler and the Swinging Sixties

If there is one image that sums up the 'Swinging Sixties' in London, it could be the photograph of Christine Keeler -who died this week- sitting in (the copy of) an Arne Jacobsen chair-

Attachment 1043388

The simplicity of the photo, that promises more than it delivers, that -unfortunately for Keeler herself- associated her with the sex scandal unfolding in the press at the time- is what gives it timeless appeal, and it has been copied many times.

The 1960s began with the trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover and the Profumo Scandal, leading some to claim the British 'discovered sex' in the 1960s, a rather strange idea but one intended to mean that sex became part of everyday life in a way it had not before -notably in the media. Whatever the truth of it, I think it is just a superb photograph, in spite of the circumstances in which it was made, the full story being in this link-

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/article...a-modern-icon/