John French (1907-66) was an English fashion and portrait photographer. Born in London, French became one of the capital's top fashion photographers in the 1950s and 60s and was the first to evolve a technique which resulted in a photograph that would reproduce with total success in newsprint. French himself devoted much attention to the set and posing of his models, but left the actual triggering of the shutter to assistants, amongst whom were Terence Donovan and David Bailey. His wife, Vere Denning, a fashion journalist, gave his photographic archive to the V&A in 1982.