Sam Taylor-Johnson
Samantha Louise Taylor-Johnson[1] OBE (née Taylor-Wood; born 4 March 1967) is a British film director and artist. Her directorial feature film debut was 2009's Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of the Beatles' singer and songwriter John Lennon. She is one of a group of artists known as the Young British Artists.
Sam Taylor-Johnson
1993–present
4
Early life[edit]
Samantha Taylor-Wood was born in Croydon, London.[2] Her father, David, left the family when she was nine.[3] Her mother, Geraldine, is a yoga teacher and astrologist. She has a younger sister, Ashley, and a maternal half-brother, Kristian.
Taylor-Johnson grew up near Streatham Common in south London until her parents' divorce.[4] The family then moved into an old schoolhouse in Jarvis Brook in East Sussex, and Samantha went to Beacon Community College. She later attended Goldsmiths, University of London.
Career[edit]
Fine art[edit]
Taylor-Johnson began exhibiting fine-art photography in the early 1990s. One collaboration with Henry Bond, titled 26 October 1993, featured Bond and Taylor-Wood reprising the roles of Yoko Ono and John Lennon in a pastiche of the photo-portrait made by photographer Annie Leibovitz—a few hours before Lennon was assassinated, in 1980.[5]
In 1994, she exhibited a multi-screen video work titled Killing Time, in which four people mimed to an opera score. From that point multi-screen video works became the main focus of Taylor-Johnson's work. Beginning with the video works Travesty of a Mockery and Pent-Up in 1996. One of Taylor-Johnson's first United Kingdom solo shows was held at the Chisenhale Gallery, east London, in September–October 1996. Taylor-Johnson was nominated for the annual Turner Prize in 1998, but lost out to the painter Chris Ofili. She won the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale.[6]
In 2000, Taylor-Johnson created a wraparound photomural around scaffolding of the London department store Selfridges while it was being restored; the mural featured 21 cultural icons including Elton John, musician Alex James, and actors Richard E. Grant and Ray Winstone. The poses of the figures referenced famous works of art from the past and recent movies.[7]
In 2002, Taylor-Johnson was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to make David, a video portrait of David Beckham—whom she depicted sleeping. She is perhaps best known for her work entitled 'Crying Men' which features many of Hollywood's glitterati crying, including Robin Williams, Sean Penn, Laurence Fishburne and Paul Newman.[8] In 2006, Taylor-Johnson had a survey exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, England.[9]
2014 saw a new photographic exhibition by Taylor-Johnson, of the private apartment of Mademoiselle Chanel at The Saatchi Gallery. Entitled ‘Second Floor,' the series of 34 photographs captured the private rooms of Coco Chanel at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris.[10]
Nowhere Boy[edit]
In August 2008, Taylor-Johnson was chosen to direct Nowhere Boy, a biopic about the childhood of John Lennon. Speaking about her experience directing the film, in September 2010, Taylor-Johnson said,
Taylor-Johnson has released three songs in collaboration with Pet Shop Boys: