Taker of intimate portraits of stars gets lucky with hard work

He may be a swinging '60s icon, but British photographer David Bailey up close is a wise-cracking crank who shrugs off his immense success as one of the world's most famous celebrity photographers.

"I'm not proud, I don't do proud," he says at the press opening of his Stardust exhibition, which is coming to Milan from March to June after a run at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Intimate portraits of stars such as Kate Moss, Jack Nicholson and Mick Jagger gaze down from the walls of the Padiglione D'arte Contemporanea, alongside photographs of his fourth wife, model Catherine Dyer, and children.