New York: High Life / Low Life

The author of England: The Last Hurrah reveals the highs and the lows of '90s New York through his stunning photographic archive.

'In England, I'd become too well-known as a Tatler photographer. It was wonderful to be invisible again.'

At the end of the 1980s, society photographer Dafydd Jones began a new life in New York. He had been hired by Vanity Fair to attend the most talked-about parties in the city and soon found himself descending into a world of human tableaux, ladies who lunch, princesses in powder rooms and dachshunds scrapping over canapés. Camera at the ready, Jones quickly filled the society pages of the illustrious magazine, snapping the likes of Leona Helmsley, Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Imelda Marcos as they celebrated, mourned and unravelled in the bright lights. During the day, he captured the city streets and the ordinary citizens grounded in the real world. In these pages, the author of England: The Last Hurrah reveals the story of New York, the highs and the lows, as the '90s unfolded in front of his expert lens.

'Mr. Jones goes about his business with cheery zest and a wicked eye.' New York Times, 1993

"Heaven help you if Dafydd Jones fixes you in his viewfinder. Mr. Jones, a Welshman who photographs for The New York Observer, specializes in deliciously cruel pictures of the social elite at play...Mr. Jones goes about his business with cheery zest and a wicked eye" - an interview from 1993, referencing work that will appear in Dafydd Jones' new book due for release in April 2024.