A celebrated photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, as well as a British war correspondent, Cecil Beaton captured both famous figures and everyday life. His personal scrapbooks, now held by Sotheby’s London, offer a rare glimpse into the imagination behind the camera.
Featuring Beaton’s photographs alongside magazine, newspaper, and playbill clippings, these pages reveal how he developed ideas through striking visual pairings. Society figures, royals, artists, and performers mingle in unexpected scenes, making the scrapbooks a fascinating record of his creative process—and a playful forerunner to the modern mood board.