In 1988 Dafydd Jones was invited to New York by the journalist and editor Tina Brown to cover parties for Vanity Fair magazine initially for a month's try-out. Travelling light, with just 2 rangefinder Leicas with 3 lenses, a light meter, a couple of tiny starblitz flashes and one Metz flash he arrived at JFK airport one late afternoon. The magazine already had a stuffed diary of parties and events for him to photograph, starting with a book party that evening at the Royalton Hotel.

Jones was offered a contract and glad to escape his reputation as ‘the photographer’ for British Tatler magazine he moved over with his family. It was the glory period of magazines. If Condé Nast in London was frugal, in comparison it seemed New York was where they spent the profits. The magazine was on a roll, bursting with advertising having been saved from failure by Tina Brown, who had a reputation for pushing people to their limits.

Leica Gallery London will be showing a capsule collection from this body of work accrued by Dafydd Jones during this very particular time – the decadent heyday of the magazine covering lavishly glamorous parties in Los Angeles and New York brimming with glittering stars and socialites at the peak of their sparkle.