Dawn Grayson – Lady In The Lake

Beautiful shot of Dawn Grayson in long negligee posing knee deep in a lake from ‘Ed Alexander Photographs English Beauties’ (1964). I’m not sure I’d be that happy posing in the water like that, but all for one’s art!

Dawn Grayson – The Magic in a Face

I originally published a version of this image under the title ‘Shattered Glass’ in June 2013 when I came across the image of Dawn and it was instantly a favourite. Well now I’ve found where it came from and have an original copy, as above. It was originally published in ‘Ed Alexander Photographs English Beauties’ on page 84, where he describes expressions of the face can change the mood of a photograph.

Incidentally I prefer this version to the first I found, as it looks better in black and white and Dawn looks good with a beauty spot!

Dawn Grayson – Kitchen Capers!

Dawn Grayson nude in the kitchen and posing for Ed Alexander for his book of English Beauties (1964). As Ed himself says, when photographing the nude indoors, a change from plain studio backgrounds can sometimes be made by using the average home as a setting, as long as the setting doesn’t detract away from the model.  Trust me, my eyes are firmly focussed on the model here!

Ed Alexander Photographs English Beauties

My latest purchase arrived this afternoon and one that I’ve been after for a while, but unfortunately it’s been going for silly prices on eBay, so I’ve always missed out.  By accident I found a copy for sale on Amazon yesterday at a very reasonable price, so despite my reservations I bought it, but for that price it had to be a very poor copy surely?  It arrived today, the day after I ordered it, it was very well securely sealed, then wrapped in brown paper and had a wonderful set of stamps attached (several Channel Tunnel ones if your interested).

Well to my surprise it’s a very good condition copy of the magazine, clean crisp pages, no discolouration and for a magazine 50 years old immaculate! So well played to the seller on Amazon for such a good buying experience, if only all sellers showed such commitment. 

Anyway onto the magazine! As the title says it’s full of English beauties photographed by Ed Alexander, including none other than Dawn Grayson on the cover (one of the reasons I wanted it!).  Published by Whitestone Publications in 1964 it’s a 112 page extravaganza of well known models, both clothed and nude, including Eve Eden, Sophia Dawn, Annette Johnson, Molly Peters and of course Dawn. The strange thing is apart from Annette Johnson, they are all using different or uncommon names, like Sophie Dorn, Kay Stern and Connie Fielding. A wonderful magazine and insight into glamour photography and lots of location shots inside and outside at Ewhurst Manor.

I’m off to scan a few pages to share with you all, then putting it up on eBay for an extortionate selling price (joking, it’s one of the few I may keep)