"The best (portrait photographer) since Nadar and Julia Margaret Cameron." Francis Bacon
John Deakin (8 May 1912 – 25 May 1972) was an English photographer, best known for his work centred on members of Francis Bacon's Soho inner circle. Bacon based a number of his paintings on photographs he commissioned from Deakin, including portraits of Henrietta Moraes and Lucian Freud.
Deakin also spent many years in Paris and Rome, photographing street scenes. His only stable period of employment as a photographer were two periods of working for Vogue between 1947 and 1954. Deakin initially aspired to be a painter, and as his photographic career waned, Deakin devoted his time to painting in the 1960s, questioning the validity and status of photography as an art form. He showed little interest in curating and publicising his own work, holding only two exhibitions in his lieftime. As a result many of his photographs were lost, destroyed or damaged over time.
A chronic alcoholic, Deakin died in obscurity and poverty, but since the 1980s his reputation has grown through monographs, exhibitions and catalogues.