Norman Parkinson's Century of Style: the best bits

'Any photographer who surrounds himself with a studio is doomed,' said Norman Parkinson, whose work is the subject of a very stylish retrospective at the National Theatre. Parkinson was the man who shook the dust off staid fashion photography by placing his models in, for the time, unlikely settings.

Parkinson's 'Century of Style' exhibition reveals how, from his early work in the 1930s until his death in 1990, Parkinson pioneered many of the things we're used to seeing in the glossy magazine shoots today – like exotic locations and odd props. 'I like to make people look as good as they'd like to look, and with luck, a shade better,' Parkinson said. We say 'hats off to him'.