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Robert Freson, who was born in Belgium, began his life in photography in New York in 1949, and he worked with the celebrated photographer Irving Penn for over thirteen years. Since 1961 Freson has been a freelance photographer. His photographs have appeared in many publications, including Esquire, Look, Marie Claire and Vogue magazines, and the Sunday Times Magazine (London). He has won several awards for his photographs for the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. Among his notable subjects during his long and distinguished career are portraits of King Mohammed V (the grandfather of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco and the father of the late King Hassan II) and the late King Fahd (Fahd Ibn Abdel Aziz al-Saud) of Saudi Arabia, (now succeeded by King Abdallah Ibn Abdelaziz), and numerous celebrities. Robert Freson has published several best-selling cook books with brilliant color photographs in The Taste of France (New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1983, 1984, 1998; New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2003) and Le Gôut de la France (Paris: Éditions Flammarion, 1992, 1996). His images profusely illustrate Patricia Wells at Home in Provence: Recipes Inspired by Her Farmhouse in France (New York: Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1996), Savoring Italy (New York: HarperCollins Publishers / Callaway Arrowsmith Editions, 1992) and Italies Gourmandes (Paris: Casterman, 1994, 1997). After living in France, where he and his wife Jeannette celebrated fifty years of marriage, Robert Freson is now a citizen of the United States and divides his time between his home on Bailey Island, Maine and a studio on the top floor of Carnegie Hall in New York City. During his remarkable life he has taken over 500,000 photographs. We are grateful to him for providing these significant and rare photographs of Jane and Paul Bowles and other literary and artistic figures of Tangier, Morocco in 1963. |
All photographs are Copyright © 1963 by Robert Freson and may not be copied, used, altered or reproduced without his advance written permission.
| Literary Tangier, 1963 | |
| Literary Tangier, 1963, sitting on the terrace of a café located in the upper medina having mint teas: (left to right) unidentified standing, Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Christopher Wanklyn, Jane Bowles, Emilio Sanz de Soto, Omar Pound (standing), Joseph A. McPhillips III, and John Hopkins. (Photograph Copyright © 1963, by Robert Freson; copying, alteration, use and reproduction is strictly prohibited.) |
| William Burroughs with his son "Billy" | |
Beat generation writer William S. Burroughs with his son Billy, Tangier, 1963. Burroughs was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He first arrived in Tangier in early 1954 and stayed in the medina, renting a room off the Socco Chico from "Dutch Tony" and he was a regular at the popular Café Central. In the late 1950s Burroughs moved into a room at the Villa Muniria in the new town, and there he wrote his famous 1959 novel The Naked Lunch. This work established him as one of the most important writers of the decade. Burroughs attracted to Tangier the Beat writers Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Jack Kerouac, among others, who arrived in 1961. The Beatniks chose to stay at the Muniria because Burroughs was there. (Photograph Copyright © 1963, by Robert Freson; copying, use, alteration and reproduction is strictly prohibited). |
| Marguerite McBey |
Marguerite McBey was an artist and a long-time resident of Tangier, Morocco. She was born on April 30, 1905 into the prominent Loeb banking family of Philadelphia. In 1930 she married the talented Scottish-born etcher and artist James McBey (1883-1959). Her husband had painted Lawrence of Arabia in Damascus in 1918, the Cherifa of Wazzan and the 4th Marchioness of Bute, among others. In 1932, James and Marguerite McBey bought an old farmhouse in Tangier, and they renovated and expanded the property, adding extensive gardens. The McBeys named their new home El Foolk, which was located on the Old Mountain Road in Sidi Masmoudi in Tangier. Their house commanded spectacular views of the Strait of Gibraltar and coast of Spain from the observatory room in its tower. She was an accomplished painter primarily known for her watercolors, and during her life there were many exhibitions throughout the world of her art works. For over 60 years, Marguerite McBey entertained Jane and Paul Bowles and many others at her estate in Tangier. Marguerite McBey died in London, England, where she had another home, on October 21, 1999, at age 94. Before her death, she willed money to the American School of Tangier to provide for a new gymnasium and swimming pool complex. Several years earlier, Marguerite McBey had donated her beach house property to the school. James and Marguerite McBey's former Tangier villa is now owned by Christopher Gibbs, for many years a prominent London-based antiques dealer. In addition to being friends with both Jane and Paul Bowles, Gibbs was a friend of Brion Gysin and his friend Mohamed Hamri, as well as Mick Jagger, the guitarist Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Ron Wood―in fact, all of the original members of the Rolling Stones rock group during the mid-to-late 1960s, both in England and in Tangier. Several books about the Rolling Stones include references and anecdotes of Gibbs' personal knowledge of the early years of the Rolling Stones, and their friends and associates in Morocco and in England. (Photograph © 1963, by Robert Freson; copying, use, alteration and reproduction is strictly prohibited) |
All photographs are Copyright © 1963 by Robert Freson and may not be copied, used, altered or reproduced without his advance written permission.
Photographs by Robert Freson, Tangier and Asilah, 1963: Part One. Next, Part Two. Part Three. Return to Galleries.
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