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Fashion

Princess Ira von Fürstenberg – celeb, fashion model, movie star

Princess Ira von Fürstenberg has been gossip-column fodder ever since becoming a child bride in 1955. By the mid-’60s she was a glamorous fashion model and movie star too.

Ira von Fürstenberg with Yves Saint Laurent
1966. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg with Yves Saint Laurent and friends. Photo: Reporters Associés.

Her celebrity credentials are impeccable. Her father, Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg, was a German aristocrat. Her mother, Clara Agnelli, was the elder sister of Fiat’s chairman, Gianni Agnelli. A perfect blend of nobility and wealth. And lest anyone fail to notice her elevated social status, her parents christened their daughter Virginia Carolina Theresa Pancrazia Galdina Prinzessin zu Fürstenberg.

Princess Ira von Fürstenberg – wedded to the jet set

But it is THAT WEDDING that shoots our Ira to notoriety. She is just 15 years old and, according to IMDb, she will later claim her parents threatened to disown her and send her to a convent if she refused her proposed husband.

At 31, he is twice her age. He is also Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, not just a compelling dynastic match but also a businessman with a flair for romance and marketing.

Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe, a scion of one of Bavaria’s grandest families and a man of silken charm, was touring the Spanish coast in his charcoal-burning Rolls-Royce in 1947 when, they say, he stopped for a picnic at Marbella, a small fishing village. Enchanted by the view and acting on his father’s mandate to find property to help revitalize the family’s depleted fortunes, he purchased a ramshackle vineyard for 150,000 pesetas (about $14,000 at the time) and proceeded to sell plots to his wealthy and influential friends, who had family names like Rothschild and Thyssen.

The resort quickly developed, and in 1954 Hohenlohe converted a farmhouse into a luxury hotel, dubbing it the Marbella Club. There, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor cavorted with Hollywood stars and European aristocrats. The crowd at the Marbella Club was so grand that even the sometime piano player, a Spanish nobleman named Don Jaime de Moray Aragón, whose sister was queen of the Belgians, was said to be directly descended from 56 kings.…

…The marriage didn’t last, but Hohenlohe’s hectic erotic career, conducted in the gilded fishbowl of Marbella, was the stuff of legend, with a dazzling array of lovers including Ava Gardner and Kim Novak.

You can read more in Christopher Mason’s History of the Jet-Set and their Favorite Travel Spots for Town & Country.

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Off to get married

Off to get married

Venice, 17 September 1955. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg steps into the gondola that will take her to her wedding with Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

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On the way

On the way

Venice, 17 September 1955. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg on the way to her wedding with Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

The wedding takes place in Venice and the celebrations are appropriately lavish, lasting for three days. A shot of the Princess arriving by barge appears on the front cover of the October 17, 1955 issue of LIFE magazine. And there’s a video clip of the event on British Pathé’s website. The couple have two sons before their divorce in 1960.

Ira von Fürstenberg meets her future second husband, Francisco “Baby” Pignatari, at a party. He is a Brazilian industrialist. The couple marry in 1961 in Reno, Nevada, only to divorce three years later. Ira continues to be romantically linked in the gossip columns with various beaux, the most famous being Prince Rainier, following Princess Grace’s death in 1982.

Meanwhile, in 1969 her younger brother, Egon, marries Diane Halfin, founder of Diane von Fürstenberg.

Princess Ira von Fürstenberg – fashion model and movie star

In the mid ’60s, opportunity comes knocking on Ira von Fürstenberg’s door, as she recalls in an interview for Vanity Fair:

I was alone and without my children. I had divorced twice and suddenly, Dino de Laurentiis [an Italian film producer who, along with Sophia Loren’s husband, Carlo Ponti, helped put Italian cinema on the international stage after the Second Word War] asked me to do movies. They were the happiest years of my life. The best people I’ve tried. Passionate, different, loving. Each shoot was a new family and that’s what counts for me.

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Ira von Fürstenberg in the world's most glamorous crop top

Ira von Fürstenberg in the world’s most glamorous crop top

1966. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg looks jaw-droppingly svelte in this minimalistic outfit she gets to wear as Arabella in Matchless. With a look like that she must have had her time cut out warding off the advances of any number of Prince Charmings. Photo by Glauco Cortini.

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Ira von Fürstenberg up close and personal

Ira von Fürstenberg up close and personal

1966. A closer look at that glamorous crop top. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg, with smouldering eyes and pouty lips, gives the camera her most seductive, come-and-get-me expression. She's in the character of the irresistible Arabella in Matchless Photo by Glauco Cortini.

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Ira von Fürstenberg, hello boys

Ira von Fürstenberg, hello boys

1966. Does this shot remind you of anything? For instance, Eva Herzigova's eye-popping,traffic-stopping 1994 campaign poster for Wonderbra? In fact the sheer shirt and sequinned bra are one of the costumes worn by Princess Ira von Fürstenberg as Arabella in Matchless. Photo by Glauco Cortini.

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Ira von Fürstenberg at the casino

Ira von Fürstenberg at the casino

1966. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg as Evelyne Rossan in Hello, Goodbye. Casinos, with their jet-set associations, were a favourite venue for so many 1960s thrillers and spoofs, and bring to mind Richard Avedon's famous 1954 shot of Sunny Harnett modelling a Grès evening dress at the Casino, Le Touquet. Photo from the Pierluigi Picture Feature Service.

Her first appearances are in three movies released in 1967: Rasputin, Dead Run and Matchless. The last of those, a frothy piece of period silliness, is available to watch on YouTube. In a scathing review, the New York Times reports that:

A real, sure-enough member of royalty from the society columns, Princess Ira Furstenberg, plays a bland, casually clad femme fatale. Talent aside, she makes a luscious eyeful.

Ira does, indeed, look gorgeous and goes on to make a further 26 appearances in European B-movies. But Ira’s movies meet with little success, as Andy Warhol notes in his diaries:

Went to Regine’s dinner for Ira Von Furstenberg (cab $2). Regine never showed up. Talked to Ira. And then her son came in and he was so good-looking. … Princess Ira has always wanted to be a movie star. Always. She’s been in lots of movies that never made it. I saw on TV the other night the Darryl Zanuck movie that he made for his girlfriend, Genevieve Gilles, and Ira was the second lead.

Regine is of course Régine Zylberberg, the night-club impresario credited with inventing the disco.

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Ira von Fürstenberg combines fashion and jet setting

Ira von Fürstenberg combines fashion and jet setting

Around 1967. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg travelling in style in a striped, raw-silk dress. Could she be on a private jet headed for Monte Carlo or Marbella? Photo by Glauco Cortini.

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Ira von Fürstenberg models a dress by Paco Rabanne

Ira von Fürstenberg models a dress by Paco Rabanne

1967. The dress of metallic disks is classic, space-age Paco Rabanne and Princess Ira von Fürstenberg has the looks, the figure and the chutzpah to carry it off. Photo by Glauco Cortini.

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Ira von Fürstenberg models a dress by Paco Rabanne

Ira von Fürstenberg models a dress by Paco Rabanne

1967. A closer look at that Paco Rabanne classic modelled by the gorgeous Princess Ira von Fürstenberg. Photo by Glauco Cortini.

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Ira von Fürstenberg ready for business

Ira von Fürstenberg ready for business

1966. Princess Ira von Fürstenberg wears a crisp, striped shirt and layers of mascara. Photo by Glauco Cortini.

By the mid-’60s Ira von Fürstenberg is also featuring on the pages of fashion magazines including Vogue. Her suave and sophisticated looks clearly appeal to the fashion editors and photographers of the time including Gianni Penati, Henry Clarke and Irving Penn, as you can see in this Flickr album. You might also like to take a look at the scans of Alexis Waldeck’s shoot at Femme Fatale.

Angelo Frontoni prepares Ira von Fürstenberg for a photo shoot
1967. Angelo Frontoni, prepares Ira von Fürstenberg for a photo shoot. Read more.

These days she works as an artist, creating sculptures and jewelry from found objects discovered on her travels.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard
Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard – fiction and friction
Monica Vitti
Monica Vitti – a sad childhood, a glittering career and a bitter old age
The sixties – sex, drugs, rock and roll and a whole lot more

Filed Under: Fashion, Stars Tagged With: Angelo Frontoni, Glauco Cortini, Ira von Fürstenberg

Donyale Luna – the fashion world’s wayward moon-child

Donyale Luna in Qui Etes Vous, Polly Maggoo?
1967. Donyale Luna in Qui Etes Vous, Polly Maggoo? Photo: Reporters Associés.

Donyale Luna took the fashion world by storm in the mid-’60s, becoming the first African-American model to appear on the cover of Vogue. She worked with some of the most creative spirits of the time including Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini.

No wonder she’s now a cult figure, with no shortage of information and misinformation about her on the Internet. I really can’t do any better than begin with this introduction from the Donyale Luna Blog:

Six feet three inches tall and slender as an adder, with eyes the size of demitasse saucers, Donyale Luna was not only the first black supermodel and the highest-paid fashion model of her time: she was a unique phenomenon, arguably the most strangely beautiful woman to grace the planet in the 20th century. The fashion world—indeed the world at large—will never see the likes of her again.

Looking at her photos, watching her movies and reading about her I’m struck by seven aspects of her personality and career.

Donyale Luna, shape-shifter

When asked where she came from, Donyale would reply, “I’m from the moon, darling.” The reality was more prosaic.

She was born in 1945, the daughter of Peggy and Nathaniel Freeman, a working-class couple living in Detroit. They had a tempestuous marriage – they were married and divorced four times. In 1965, after Donyale had moved to New York,  it ended in tragedy, Peggy shooting (and killing) her husband as he came home drunk and threatening.

Despite the unhappy ending, Donyale Luna seems to have grown up in a happy, respectable and relatively prosperous  home. She was intelligent and ambitious. And as the gangly duckling morphed into a black swan, she turned herself into someone else – parallels here with another ’60s model, Veruschka. She changed her name (Luna is the Latin word for moon), she changed her voice and she changed her life story. The Donyale Luna Blog again:

When Sanders Bryant [a friend and beau] met the unfolding diva at age 15, “she was already radiant and gorgeous.” They were in the Cass Tech high school cafeteria, and our girl was working on a film script. She introduced herself as Donyale Luna, recently arrived from Hawaii. Her parents had been killed in an auto accident and she was adopted. “She continued that story as long as I knew her,” says Bryant, “even after I knew her mother and father and that she was born in Ford Hospital right here in Detroit.”

She dreamed of being a movie star herself (“like Anna Magnani”), a writer, a dancer. At age 16 and 17, Donyale was performing on stage at the Civic Center Theatre in Detroit.

What are we to make of it all? Well, what was a girl to do whose figure and beauty were so extraordinary and mesmerising? Try to be like her contemporaries or step out boldly on her own path? She chose the latter, but perhaps inside the diva there was always a scared little girl.

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Donyale Luna lost in thought

Donyale Luna lost in thought

1967. The crew are conferring just across the room, but Donyale, cigarette in hand, seems to be in a world of her own. Photo by Jack Garofalo.

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Donyale Luna poses in front of a lacquer screen

Donyale Luna poses in front of a lacquer screen

1967. Who are the guys and what is the occasion? More urgently, who designed THAT DRESS? Photo by Jack Garofalo.

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Jack Garofalo shoots Donyale Luna

Jack Garofalo shoots Donyale Luna

1967. Is this a posed shot? Or has the photographer caught Donyale in an unguarded moment of dark despair? Whatever the case, it's a stunning image. Photo by Jack Garofalo.

Donyale Luna, new kid on the block

Donyale Luna was discovered in 1963 by David McCabe, an English photographer (the following year Andy Warhol commissioned him to document his daily activities for a year, resulting in a book called A Year in the Life of Andy Warhol).

I was on a photo assignment in Detroit, photographing Ford cars [and] there was a school nearby. I was struck by this almost 6-foot-tall beautiful girl – around 14-years-old at the time– wearing her Catholic uniform. She stopped to see what was going on.

He told her that he worked for magazines like Mademoiselle and Glamour, and invited her to call him should she visit New York. Her mother was unenthusiastic: “I tried to discourage her from going to New York because I had heard so much that was bad about it.” But Donyale kept insisting and they reached a compromise: she would go and live with her aunt in New Jersey and get a job while pursuing modeling in her free time.

So in 1964, Donyale flew to NYC and called David McCabe. He was as good as his word, sending photos of her to various agencies and introducing her to Nancy White, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar. She and her team immediately decided to tear up their January cover and hire an artist, ex-model Katharina Denzinger, to make the breakthrough line drawing of Donyale that replaced it, together with six full-colour sketches of her for the inside pages.

David McCabe also called Richard Avedon. “I said you’ve got to see this girl. She’s just unbelievable.” Avedon was blown away and had her signed to an exclusive one-year contract.

Donyale Luna, trailblazer

1966. Donyale Luna on the cover of Vogue.
1966. David Bailey’s history-making Vogue cover shot of Donyale Luna.

Donyale Luna spent 1965 in New York. Avedon’s first pictures of her appeared in the April issue of Harper’s Bazaar – the one he guest-edited. A caption to one of the photos read, “As worn by Donyale Luna with all the grace and strength of a Masai warrior.”.

But it soon became clear that all was not well in the southern states. Advertisers objected to the photos of Donyale and readers began to cancel their subscriptions. William Randolph Hearst, who owned the magazine, called a halt. Avedon later recalled, “For reasons of racial prejudice, and the economics of the fashion business, I was never permitted to photograph her for publication again.”.

Before moving to London in December, Donyale had a nervous breakdown and spent time in Bellevue Hospital. Two years later she told the New York Times that she fled from New York when she found “they said beautiful things on one side and turned around and stabbed you in the back.”. But that and the racist response to her photo shoots were probably only part of the story. In the space of just a few months she had shot to fame, lost her father, been shocked by the decadence of Andy Warhol’s East 47th Street Factory and had a brief, failed marriage.

In London she became an even bigger hit and made history when a photo of her by David Bailey appeared on the front cover of the 1 March 1966 issue of Vogue – the first ever to feature a black model.  It was around this time that she married Luigi Cazzaniga, a photographer. Three years later Donyale moved to Italy, where she would end her career.

Donyale Luna, the heavenly body

According to Bailey, “She was extraordinary-looking, so tall and skinny. She was like an illustration, a walking illustration.”

Donyale certainly made an impression on her friend, the model Pat Cleveland:

She had no tits, but lots of presence. We’d walk down the street and men’s mouths would drop open in awe. When we walked into restaurants people would stop eating and stand up and applaud. She was like a mirage, or some kind of fantasy.

At a New York nightclub in 1966 Jackie Kennedy went up to Donyale and simply said, “You are very beautiful.” An article in the 1 April 1966 issue of Time magazine and titled “The Luna Year”, described her as:

…a new heavenly body who, because of her striking singularity, promises to remain on high for many a season. Donyale Luna, as she calls herself, is unquestionably the hottest model in Europe at the moment. She is only 20, a Negro, hails from Detroit, and is not to be missed if one reads Harper’s Bazaar, Paris Match, Britain’s Queen, the British, French or American editions of Vogue.

Donyale Luna, bohemian

Donyale Luna was drawn to creative people and they to her. And she brought that side of her character to her modeling, developing crazy runway walks including moving like a robot and crawling on all fours like a stalking animal.

In New York everyone who glittered want to know Donyale. She hung out with Miles Davis, she had Mati Klarwein (a psychedelic artist who made record covers for Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix) paint her body (another parallel with Veruschka), and she fell in with Andy Warhol and his crowd. She was one of only two black women to be part of his East 47th Street Factory.

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Donyale Luna posing on Salvador Dali's grand piano

Donyale Luna posing on Salvador Dali’s grand piano

1966. Pianos are a recurring theme in Dali's work, particularly in the 1930s. Donyale was one of his favourite models. So this must have been quite a fantasy scenario! Photo by Bill Claxton.

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Donyale Luna modelling a dress decorated by Salvador Dali

Donyale Luna modelling a dress decorated by Salvador Dali

1966. Dali drew the pattern onto the dress as Donyale modelled it. Love the fluid transition from flesh to bone and the integrated signature. Photo by Bill Claxton.

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1966. Donyale Luna cradling Salvador Dali's pet ocelot

1966. Donyale Luna cradling Salvador Dali’s pet ocelot

1966. Dali's most treasured pet was a Colombian ocelot called Babou. It accompanied him nearly everywhere he went, including a restaurant in Manhattan. When a fellow diner became alarmed, he calmly told her that Babou was a normal cat that he had “painted over in an op art design”. Donyale certainly shares Babou's feline grace. Photo by Bill Claxton.

In London, her celebrity friends included Mick Jagger, Michael Caine, Julie Christie, Mia Farrow and Yul Brynner. She dated the actor Terence Stamp, and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. And she was photographed by William Klein, Helmut Newton and William Claxton. It was Claxton who introduced her to Salvador Dalí, who described her as “the reincarnation of Nefertiti”.

Donyale Luna, movie star

Talking of which, Donyale Luna features in Soft Self-Portrait of Salvador Dali, a documentary biography narrated by Orson Welles. She also appears in a number of cult movies: Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, William Klein’s Qui Etes Vous, Polly Maggoo? and Federico Fellini’s Satyricon.

She had begun acting during her time in New York, appearing in four of Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. In Otto Preminger’s comedy, Skidoo, she plays the mistress of God; Groucho Marx got God’s role.

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Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?

1966. Donyale Luna in Qui Etes Vous, Polly Maggoo?

This is the opening scene of Qui Etes Vous, Polly Maggoo?, William Klein's gleeful satire on the fashion industry. Donyale is one of the mannequins modelling metal fashions that parody the creations of Paco Rabanne. Miss Maxwell, the magazine editor inspired by Diana Vreeland, is played by Grayson Hall.
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donyale luna satyricon

1969. Donyale Luna in Fellini’s Satyricon

This clip is as haunting as it is short. Donyale plays the part of the sorceress, Enotea in Fellini's extravagantly self-indulgent movie set in ancient Rome and based on the writings of Petronius. Martin Potter is her visitor, Encolpio.
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donyale luna patty pravo

1969. Donyale Luna with Patty Pravo

This double act is the epitome of the groovy, spaced-out, LSD-fuelled mood of the late '60s. Patty Pravo, an Italian singer who made her debut in 1966, sings a cover version of The Beatles' hit song, Michelle. But Donyale steals the show with her entrancingly exotic dance and equally exotic costumes (of which there are many!). This is a must-see for all Donyale fans; don't be put off by the brief technical glitch at 0:37.

Donyale Luna, lost soul

Given the pressure of her chosen career, her probable insecurity and the circles in which she moved from her time in New York onwards, it’s hardly surprising that Donyale Luna went off the rails. As time went on, she became more and more flaky and her behaviour got more eccentric. Beverly Johnson was a black model who broke onto the scene toward the end of Donyale’s career:

[Donyale] doesn’t wear shoes winter or summer. Ask her where she’s from — Mars? She went up and down the runways on her hands and knees. She didn’t show up for bookings. She didn’t have a hard time, she made it hard for herself.

At the age of 32 the drug-taking finally did for Donyale. Estranged from her husband and living in Rome, she died of an accidental heroin overdose in May 1979, leaving behind an 18-month-old daughter, Dream.

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Donyale Luna frock hunting

Donyale Luna frock hunting

1966. Donyale Luna hunts designer dresses at the Jardin Des Plantes, Paris. Photo by Jack Garofalo for Paris Match.

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Donyale Luna poses on an operating table

Donyale Luna poses on an operating table

1966. Seems like a premonition. So sad that just 13 years later she would be dead. Photo by Maurice Jarnoux for Paris Match.

Want to know more about Donyale Luna?

There’s so much myth and misinformation around Donyale Luna that you have to be careful where you look. By far the most interesting, thorough and well-researched source I’ve come across is the Donyale Luna Blog. It’s a work in progress.

If you’d like to read a book, you could take a look at Ben Arogundade’s Beauty’s Enigma – Donyale Luna – The First Black Supermodel. Articles on which I’ve drawn include:

  • The tragic tale of Donyale Luna by Ben Arogundade
  • Donyale Luna: the world`s first black supermodel and the first to grace the cover of Vogue
  • The First Black Supermodel, Whom History Forgot by Keli Goff
  • Luna Space Model by Philippa Burton
  • Donyale Luna in Formidable Magazine

Other topics you may be interested in…

Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard
Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard – fiction and friction
The sixties – sex, drugs, rock and roll and a whole lot more
Veruschka and Rubartelli – a fashion legend

Filed Under: Fashion, Stars Tagged With: Bill Claxton, David Bailey, David McCabe, Donyale Luna, Jack Garofalo, Nancy White, Richard Avedon, Salvador Dali

Hoyningen-Huene makes a portrait

This article from the November 1947 issue of Popular Photography offers a great insight into the working methods and views of George Hoyningen-Huene, one of the 20th century’s great fashion photographers. It describes a lecture he gave at the Art Center School in Pasadena, where he had begun teaching.

At that time, he had recently grown disillusioned with the direction fashion photography was taking, and that comes through strongly in some of his comments. But read on and you’ll find out about his approach to lighting – an aspect of his work for which he is particularly renowned. I love his observation that:

With women, if the lighting proves to be the least bit unflattering, you’re liable to find yourself picking pieces of tripod out of your head where the irate female has placed them.

I came across the article as I was preparing a piece on Hazel Brooks. A scan of the original, complete with photographs, is available online. The photo on this page is in my collection and does not relate to the session described by Timothy Stratton though it was taken the same year.

Hoyningen-Huene makes a Portrait by Timothy Stratton

George Hoyningen-Huene is a name not new to photography. Russan born, Hoyningen-Huene had an American mother, an English education, art training in France, and has explored virtually every country in Europe, and many in Asia and Africa. Most well known for his photographic work in women’s fashion magazines, he is also the author of the picture books “Hellas,” “Egypt,” “Mexican Heritage,” and “Baalbek and Palmyra.”

1947. George Hoyningen-Huene masterclass. Read more.

Three hundred photography students at Los Angeles Art Center recently had George Hoyningen-Huene, internationally known photographer, as a guest lecturer. Huene brought with him Hazel Brooks, Enterprise Studios’ star who spent six months as a Conover model before Hollywood recognized her. She is copper-haired, green-eyed, tall and sveltely slim, and Huene claims she is the ideal photographic subject.

To back up his belief that she makes an ideal photographic subject, Huene used her to demonstrate the procedure followed in a typical commercial fashion or glamour assignment. After posing her in several ways, and under varying lighting conditions, he set out to make the portrait shown on the opposite page, explaining his procedure as he went along. Following his theory that the pose is all important, his model’s position was first determined, and then the lighting set up. His backlight, key or main lighting, and fill-in lights were arranged, and lights to accentuate special features of the photograph, such as veiling and straw hat, were then set. After this was done, his exposure readings were taken, and Hoyningen-Huene was ready to make a portrait.

In the course of his lecture, Huene, who has posed more beautiful women than the loneliest male ever dreamed of, informed the Art Center students that he is not pleased with the present crop of glamour pictures turned out by members of his profession.

His opinions on glamour and fashion photography – two fields whose techniques are in many ways similar – were definite, outspoken, and well phrased.

Somebody apparently got the idea, not too long ago, that models were supposed to give the appearance of having been under water for a couple of weeks before they were photographed. With their deadpan, limp fish looks, many of the models appearing in current ads leave me with a feeling of wanting to race for great gulps of fresh air.

Were these stupid expressions that burden the faces of various models entirely the fault of the girls themselves, I would offer a suggestion that the present crop of models be dumped and an entire new lot hired. There is, unfortunately, a similarity among most of the models, but not so complete that a good photographer can’t hide these similarities with an average employment of intelligence. The sooner photographers realize that the models are women and not alabaster personalities, the more arresting fashion and glamour ads will be.”

Huene strongly believes that too many fashion photographers are afraid to let their models look like beautiful women. They prefer to treat them as statues and in so doing lose whatever personality might be expressed in the girls’ faces.

Most of the time, this ‘statue treatment’ is nothing but laziness. Any photographer knows that floodlighting a face and letting the makeup take care of the model’s personality is the easiest way to a pseudo-glamour shot. This opinion is shared by the girls who have been modelling for a long time and who realize that such time-saving stunts as false eyelashes and a liberal application of lipstick cover up for their own laziness. Many of the models are under the impression that such phoney devices add to their beauty. I wonder who they think they are fooling. A good model should be herself and not try to look like the average concept of a model. But trying to get her to look natural is an entirely different matter. Many of the present high-priced photographic lovelies have been so mishandled and improperly photographed by the ‘alabaster look’ photographers that they naturally assume that every photographer they work for wants that same old ‘How bored can one be?’ expression. I’d much rather take an inexperienced model and, through a sensible lighting arrangement, bring out the freshness and charm of the girl, something that is nearly impossible with girls who have been modeling for three or four years. Too, with an inexperienced model, one who hasn’t been mauled photographically, freshness can be brought out with even a basic lighting arrangement.

In the matter of lighting a subject, Huene takes a healthy clout at those photographers who spend hours arranging their lights.

Any photographer should realize that for fashion shots the basic lighting arrangement never changes. One key light of no particular power or quality; a background light dictated by the way in which you wish to highlight your subject, and another light either above or below your subject, depending upon the features of the subject to be emphasized, are all you need.

The only tough part in the entire lighting setup is the decision as to what part of the model should be accented. Some feature of the model must be accented or a dull, flat, lifeless picture will be the result. I think the easiest way to accent is through use of a ‘dinky,’ using the small light as an artist would a shading pencil. I’ve found that with such a lamp it is almost possible to ‘draw’ with light. Too, to bring out the sparkle in the eyes with light and not depend on the easily detected eye-sparkle created by the brush of a retoucher, a ‘dinky’ can’t be beaten. It’s biggest advantage is that it can ‘draw’ a line of light without destroying the image created by the balance of key lights and fill-in.

I’ve found over the years of long, hard experience that the best lighting arrangement for glamour or fashion shots is the simplest possible lighting. The simpler the lighting, the more true the photograph. Once you’ve established the lighting setup, forget about it and concentrate on the subject. And whatever you do, try to arrange your lighting scheme in a hurry and not bore the model with lighting details. With men you’ve really got nothing to worry about. Men don’t care about looking handsome. Most of the males that I’ve photographed have been against ‘glamour boy’ shots. The male attitude being such, you don’t have to spend too much time on a lighting setup. Actually, the more rugged the subject appears the better he likes it. But with women, if the lighting proves to be the least bit unflattering, you’re liable to find yourself picking pieces of tripod out of your head where the irate female has placed them.

As simple as the lighting setup should be, it still takes care to find out the necessary angles for simplicity. Huene suggests that the student fashion photographer practice lighting arrangements on a plaster cast. “It’s the surest way I know for an embryonic fashion photographer to discover the ways light travels over a face and how it can completely alter the features of the model. After the plaster cast light experiment has been completed and the various gradations of light recorded on a piece of paper, the student should start experimenting on mood pictures of old men or women, enhancing facial characteristics through deft lighting.

On the matter of backgrounds for fashion shots, Huene claims that any background can be used as long as it doesn’t blend with the subject being photographed and make it lifeless, and doesn’t interfere with the facial qualities of the model. By this Huene means that in many glamour or fashion shots, a flower placed in the background often looks as if it is growing out of the subject’s ear. The best background, claims Huene, is one that is shaded in darkness but still an intrinsic part of the picture. This is not as difficult to obtain as it sounds.

All the photographer has to do is exercise some ingenuity and care in the selection and creation of his backgrounds. Whatever you do, don’t make the backgrounds so arresting that they attract more attention than the primary subject.

Following the work on the old men, Huene suggests (and it is probably one of the few suggestions that any student of any subject will readily accept) that the photographer make a series of “posture poses” of girls garbed in bathing suits.

Don’t kid yourself that making a series of pictures of girls in bathing suits is a very pleasant way to spend many hours. It’s tough work but very valuable. For the first time most young photographers realize the tremendous artisitic value of good feminine posture. With nothing to lean upon during the beach photo session, both the girl and the photographer soon find that some of the over-exaggerated postures assumed by a model for fashion shots are completely unnatural. When the model tries to assume these poses at the beach, with nothing upon which to support herself, she can’t stand up. Remember this when you pose the girl for a fashion shot, and you won’t wind up with one of the stupid stances that ruin otherwise decent pictures.

After the lighting experiments, the practice shots made of the plaster cast, the experiments with the old men, the selection of a new, sweet feminine face for a model and the series of bathing suit shots, I think that the student fashion photographer is ready to make his first shot.

Experiment with the texture of the gown your model is wearing before you decide on a picture. Arrange the girl under the basic lighting setup, making certain that you bring out the ‘life’ in the cloth. Add accessories as necessary and you’re nearly ready to click the shutter. There’s just one more step that remains, and this final step separates, as it were, the amateurs from the master.

It’s the composition of the picture. The camera originally was designed to capture and retain some particularly striking scene. Why forget about this use of the camera in the making of a photograph designed to sell a product?” Your fashion photo, or any picture taken for use as an ad, is only going to hold reader attention if it is strikingly beautiful through natural simplicity. We’ve come right back to the business of the dismal expressions that blacken the otherwise beautiful faces of our leading models. And again, it is not their fault but the fault of the photographers.

I can’t understand why a photographer shouldn’t take a few minutes more during the course of a sitting, and get from his models the grace that only comes with being natural. One of the tricks that I’ve used is to have the model walk slowly around the area outlined by the lights. Watch her through the groundglass. After a couple of minutes of parading she’s bound to forget all that she might have learned in modeling school about ‘walking like a lady.’ Then she’ll start walking and acting like any normal person. That’s the time to take your picture. Stop her when you see a natural looking pose. If necessary have her hold the stance or the action a couple of seconds while you alter your fill-in light. Then shoot.

When the picture you’re shooting has to show two or more people your trouble is doubled. Even when you tell a group of models to start talking or acting in an entirely natural manner, they are conscious of the camera. I’ve been making fashion, glamour, and news shots for nearly twenty-five years, and I have yet to find a posed subject void of camera consciousness.

Did you ever think of the fact that the camera does practically all the wok in the making of a picture? Focusing and stops are up to the cameraman, of course, but even the crudest camera can make a good picture. Its value, however, depends entirely on the photographer, and the picture is not going to have any value at all unless the photographer works for naturalness. And how should the photographer work for this naturalness? By balancing all the factors that make the picture. The background should be balanced with the subject. The subject should not overbalance the object that the photographer is trying to present. Everything in the picture should work for something. Obtaining this balance is difficult, of course, but not impossible. A short course in architecture and free hand drawing, particularly of nudes, is very valuable.

I can’t tell anybody how to blend these factors. It’s a matter that the photographer must work out for himself. Nobody told the masters the tricks of balance when they started painting the pictures that have endured and increased in beauty with each passing year. The charm of the picture that the painter obtained through balance is never changing. It should be the same with a fashion or glamour photo. Don’t start making fashion shots with the idea that they are only for 1947 or 1948. Set up your pictures with the idea that some day they’ll be included in a collection of the world’s great photographic art.

These are the technical aspects of making a good picture. From the commercial standpoint Huene feels that it would be a good idea for every fashion or glamour photographer to know something about the dressmaking industry or the product he is trying to sell through a masterful picture. When possible, an assistant should be hired to take care of the basic lighting arrangements and the like.

Most important, however, is an understanding between the photographer and the editor of the magazine for which he is shooting. A conference between the two before the model arrives will iron out most of the difficulties that can normally be expected and save time and effort.

After all these preparations, what is going to be the final result?

A picture of a girl that looks human,” claims Huene. “A picture that not only sells a product, but attracts reader attention by being fresh and entirely lifelike. It seems almost a crime that with all the wonderful photographic equipment and supplies at their disposal, so many photographers should continue, through the lack of understanding of what makes a good picture and the failure to exercise artistic judgment, to pour out thousands of stupid, make-believe glamour prints. Don’t let anybody tell you that the reason for the models appearing so similar in ads is the models themselves. They are only doing what they are told. It’s the fault of the photographers, who, through carelessness or laziness are interested only in getting a check and not an artistic creation.

Hoyningen-Huene, who has made pictures of women in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States, and won numerous prizes in photographic salons, should know whereof he speaks.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Janet Blair by A L “Whitey” Schafer
A L “Whitey” Schafer – the art of the portrait
George Hoyningen-Huene – from film to fashion and back again
Richard Avedon – ways to be lovely

Filed Under: Fashion, Press Tagged With: George Hoyningen-Huene

George Hoyningen-Huene – from film to fashion and back again

Fashion shot by George Hoyngingen-Huene
Around 1935. Fashion shot by George Hoyngingen-Huene.

George Hoyningen-Huene is the perfect subject for aenigma – a photographer who, in the early days of his career, got involved in the movie business, went on to work in the fashion industry and eventually fetched up in Hollywood. It makes for a fascinating story.

George Hoyningen-Huene is born in 1900, the son of a Baltic nobleman, the chief equerry to Tsar Alexander III, and an American expat whose father has been the United States Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Russian court. But although George comes into the world with an enormous silver spoon in his mouth, his childhood is far from promising. He’s neglected by his parents and does poorly at school.

In 1916, friends of his family are involved in Rasputin’s murder. And the following year, as the Revolution gathers pace, he flees with his mother to England. After a spell at grammar school, age 18 and filled with youthful idealism he goes to fight alongside the White Russians in the hope of establishing a social democratic state. But, together with his comrades, he contracts typhus fever and almost dies.

On his return he finds his parents have settled on the French Riviera. Along with thousands of Russian refugees, he heads for Paris where he takes on various odd jobs including a stint as a lumber inspector for an American company in Poland.

George Hoyningen-Huene – the Paris years

After a series of odd jobs, George finds that with his tuxedo he can get jobs as a movie extra and it is here that he learns how to light people and sets.

In the meanwhile, his sister opens a dressmaking business and asks George to sketch the dresses for her catalogue. Soon he starts making a living at fashion illustration. In a 1965 interview he remembers:

I would have to go to dance places and night clubs and to the races and remember clothes – I couldn’t sketch all the time, I had to remember them. It is very curious how one can train one’s memory if one wants to. I could remember over a hundred dresses in every detail, after about two hours’ work. Then I would go home and start sketching.

Then he gets a job as an illustrator for Harper’s Bazaar and after that another opportunity opens up:

Then Vogue came around and made me an offer which at that time was quite wonderful (I was 25 years old). Among my duties was to prepare and design backgrounds for photographers. There was Man Ray, and there was an English photographer and several other men, and they were all being tried out for Vogue. Their final choice was a young American photographer who showed a lot of talent but who was rather erratic. One day he didn’t turn up. There was the set and the model was ready, and there was an assistant who did darkroom work. I called the office and they said, well, just shoot it. So I took the picture. From that day on I was Vogue’s Paris photographer.

As his work gains recognition, George Hoyngien-Huene exhibits at the Premier Salon Indépendant de la Photographie in 1928 and at the Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart the following year.

In the Paris of the 1920s, George Hoyningen-Huene mixes with the likes of Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga, Christian Bérard, Pavel Tchelitchew, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Lee Miller and Salvador Dali (who, walks all the way up the stairs to George’s seventh-floor apartment because he’s scared of taking the elevator). Perhaps he meets Kenneth Heilbron, who arrives in Paris in 1926.

George Hoyningen-Huene – Vogue via Harper’s Bazaar to Hollywood

Edward Steichen comes over, allows George to watch him work and gives him moral support. In 1929 Condé Nast brings him over to New York and, in George’s own words:

From then on, I suppose I can say that I became the best fashion photographer between 1930 and 1945.

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Carole Lombard modelling a lamé gown by Travis Banton

Carole Lombard modelling a lamé gown by Travis Banton

1934 This over-the-top flight of fantasy is worthy of Cecil Beaton with its giant rococo frame encased in gauzy drapery. What an artful way of backlighting the subject in her ultra-chic evening gown. Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene.

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Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

1934 If the photo of Carole Lombard is in the style of Cecil Beaton, this one of Katharine Hepburn seems to foreshadow the work of Bruce Weber. Hoyningen-Huene tended to work in the studio, but this shot shows how he can use natural daylight to flattering effect. Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene.

The mid-1920s to the mid-1940s, and particularly the first of those two decades, are golden years for George Hoyningen-Huene. During that time he produces some of the defining images of the world of fashion. His style is very much that of his time: classical, pared-back, austere even (the 1935 fashion photo that opens this article is a good example) – in strong contrast to the pictorialist aesthetic of the likes of Baron Adolph de Meyer. But he can work in a range of styles, as the photos of Carole Lombard and Katharine Hepburn, both shot in 1934, show.

In 1930 he meets Horst P Horst, who becomes his photographic assistant, occasional model and lover. Horst will become another of the 20th century’s great fashion photographers, but that’s another story. And in 1935 he moves back to Harper’s Bazaar to work with its dream team of Carmel Snow (editor) and Alexei Brodovich (art director).

After World War II, George decides it’s time for a change. He’s already published books on Greece, Syria, Egypt, Africa and Mexico based on his travels, and h begins to teach photography at the Art Center School in Pasadena. He’s already made several documentaries in Spain and Greece when George Cukor, an old friend, asks him to come and help with his first colour picture – a remake of A Star is Born. George Cukor was clearly a big admirer.

When I brought Hoyningen-Huene to the screen he’d been for years the most distinguished photographer on Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He was a friend of mine, living in Paris, and had done a great many books. He was shooting a documentary movie at the time, and, as A Star Is Born was my first colour picture, I thought he would be ideally suited to assist me on its colour problems, since he knew all there is to know on that. Since then he’s profoundly affected all my films. He was nominally the colour co-ordinator but he touched every department with his enormous taste and knowledge.

So what exactly is colour coordination in the movie world? George Hoyningen-Huene outlines his take in that 1965 interview:

If you mix up a lot of colors and don’t have a dominant color, your eye gets distracted and you don’t know what you’re looking at. Then you get a sort of chromo-postcard effect.

In order to design a picture, you have the problem of figuring out what sort of wardrobe goes into what back-ground. You see, my function is to have the art director and the wardrobe people know exactly what the two departments were doing, and then decide on what the overall was going to look like, because you cannot design sets and have the wardrobe disregarded. It wouldn’t make any sense. It all has to jell. It has to be coordinated, and that is my function. Now, very often a certain outfit, let’s say, on the star, has to play against various backgrounds, and some combinations are satisfactory and some are not. That, of course, is unavoidable. But on the whole we can always juggle things around, especially if you’re designing sets. If they’re existing locations, then you have to accept what you have.

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Ava Gardner smoulders behind a fan

Ava Gardner smoulders behind a fan

1956. Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene.

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Ava Gardner in an off-the-shoulder dress

Ava Gardner in an off-the-shoulder dress

1956. Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene.

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Ava Gardner in pensive mood

Ava Gardner in pensive mood

1956. Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene.

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Ava Gardner en déshabille´

Ava Gardner en déshabille´

1956. Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene.

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Ava Gardner in a white-lace mantilla

Ava Gardner in a white-lace mantilla

1956. Photo by George Hoyningen-Huene.

A Star is Born marks the beginning of a long and fruitful working relationship between George Cukor and George Hoyningen-Huene in the course of which they collaborate on many films including Bhowani Junction, during the making of which Huene takes a series of portraits of Ava Gardner, five of which you can see above.

They’re a fascinating contrast with the photographs produced by MGM when Ava arrived in Hollywood little more than ten years earlier. There, she was very much an aspiring starlet – youthful and slightly diffident. Here she’s a woman – strong, handsome and confident, her fabulous bone structure caressed by Huene’s wonderfully subtle lighting. And there’s a quiet intensity – the focus thrown exclusively onto Ava with nothing to distract the viewer.

George Hoyningen-Huene dies of a heart attack in 1968 at his home in Los Angeles.

Want to know more about George Hoyningen-Huene?

In 1965, Elizabeth Dixon interviewed George Hoyningen-Huene as part of the University of California’s Oral History Program. It’s a fascinating read and a full transcript is available online. William Ewing draws heavily on it for his definitive book, The Photographic Art of Hoyningen-Huene. He has also written a substantial article for LoveToKnow. I also consulted Robert Emmet’s George Cukor Interviews. And, of course, there’s always Wikipedia.

Since I wrote this piece, the George Hoyningen-Huene Estate has been acquired by Tommy and Åsa Rönngren, who have created an elegant and informative website that really should be the first port of call for anyone interested in the photographer.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Hoyningen-Huene makes a portrait
The Young Look in the Theatre by Norman Parkinson
Norman Parkinson – photographer and fantasist
Shooting for the stars – insights from four leading Hollywood cinematographers

Filed Under: Fashion, Photographers Tagged With: Ava Gardner, Bhowani Junction, Edward Steichen, George Cukor, George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P Horst

Kenneth Heilbron – mid-century fashion from Chicago

These days, when you think of mid-20th century fashion photography two names spring to mind: Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. Their work is now in the permanent collections of major museums and art galleries around the world, the subject of regular retrospectives and highly prized by collectors – a single print can fetch tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, and rising.

Artwork for a Kenneth Heilbron exhibition poster
Around 1960. Artwork for a Heilbron exhibition sign.

But travel back in time to the 1940s and 1950s and their contemporaries may well have been bewildered at the attention garnered by Penn and Avedon given that they were just two of a host of photographers working for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and the other fashion magazines of the era.

There’s Lillian Bassman, who blurs and bleaches her prints in the darkroom to produce magical, high-contrast images of sylph-like models. Or Clifford Coffin, who pioneers the use of the ring-flash to dramatize his models and outline them with shadow. The work of others is perhaps less distinctive but is not just technically brilliant but totally conveys the zeitgeist – think Louise Dahl-Wolfe, John Rawlings, Gleb Derujinsky…

This is the era of European haute couture, dominated by the likes of Christan Dior, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, Jacques Fath and Pierre Balmain. And of Paris as the almost mythical centre of the fashion universe, immortalized in Funny Face. But while Paris grabs the fashion headlines, Europe is in a sorry state, struggling to recover from the devastation of World War II. In the US, by contrast, fortunes continue to be made, the standard of living to rise and Hollywood to cement its status as a fashion capital of the world.

In the Midwest, Marshall Field & Company of Chicago lead a host of merchants serving the newly rich and those with aspirations in that direction. Middle Americans too far away to drop by are served by the city’s major catalogue retailers – Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. And mid-20th century Chicago has its own fashion photographer too. His name is Kenneth Heilbron.

A charmed life

Christmas card artwork by Kenneth Helbron
1948. Artwork for the Heilbrons’ Christmas card.

Kenneth is the second son of a prosperous millinery importer. In 1926, age 23, he is sent by his father to Paris, the city of not just of Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin and Jean Patou but of Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Josephine Baker and the Ballets Russes. He returns to Chicago with his new wife, Mildred Anderson, five years later. Years later, he recalls the Great Depression as a thing that happened to other people, never to the friends in his circle.

Anyway, he takes up photography as a means of supplementing the family income, and his talent and connections ensure success. He is chosen as a Chicago bureau photographer for Life, Time and Fortune magazines in the 1930s–40s. In 1938 he becomes the first instructor of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Expanding into advertising and fashion photography, around the beginning of World War II the Heilbron home and studio move to the building that will later become famous as Hugh Hefner’s residence and office –the Isham mansion on State Street, where Kenneth stages portrait sittings in the grand ballroom. Although he hires laboratory assistants, he alone operates his cameras and makes prints over which he exercises absolute control.

The fashion and advertising shoots are great money-spinners and enable the Heilbrons to move to a 22-room townhouse on Wells Street in Chicago’s Old Town neighbourhood. The coach house becomes Kenneth’s photo lab, separated from his home by a private garden centred on a small lily pond. And the house itself begins to fill with American folk art, antique furniture and whole families of exotic cats, of which he took many, many photos.

Kenneth himself is quite a dandy (echoes of Norman Parkinson here). Often he dresses in custom-made Parisian clothes, and for decades, his signature look includes an ascot (a cravat) and a beret.

In 1985, the year of a retrospective at the Art Institute, the Heilbrons move to Galena, where he continues to photograph neighbours and officials. He declares himself officially retired from active picture making in 1994, three years before his death.

A man of his time

It is for his fashion photos that Kenneth features on Aenigma. His biggest client in that area seems to have been Marshall Fields, but his work also appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times (including an article about Wilhelmina) and no doubt many other magazines.

It is absolutely of its time. Like his contemporaries, Heilbron goes for naturalistic shots, often taken on location. There are some fabulous settings in Chicago – the Art Institute, the glazed upper deck of the original Equitable Building still under construction, on the street – and also in Paris.

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Feeding the pigeons

Feeding the pigeons

Around 1948. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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The New Look

The New Look

Paris, around 1948. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Street fashion

Street fashion

Chicago, around 1946. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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By the Seine

By the Seine

Paris, around 1960. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Rejection

Rejection

Around 1955. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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At the airport

At the airport

Around 1960. Unknown models. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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The fan

The fan

Around 1955. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Art critics

Art critics

Chicago Art Institute, around 1960. Unknown models. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Scooter girl

Scooter girl

Paris around 1960. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Poster girl

Poster girl

Paris, 1959. Ivy Nicholson. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Distracted by the news

Distracted by the news

Paris, around 1960. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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In a world of her own

In a world of her own

Paris, around 1960. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Taken by surprise

Taken by surprise

Paris, around 1960. Ivy Nicholson. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Coffee and colonnade

Coffee and colonnade

Paris, around 1960. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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Dancing down the steps

Dancing down the steps

Around 1962. Wilhelmina modelling a summer dress. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron

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In a hurry

In a hurry

Paris, around 1960. Ivy Nicholson. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron.

Looking at the images here, it’s clear that Heilbron had a great eye for composition (in 1939 he published a book on Composition for the Amateur), an ability to put his models at ease and the technique to capture the studied elegance of the times. He was also willing to spend hours in the darkroom coaxing subtle details into a single image he wanted to preserve. This helps to explain why many of his pictures exist as unique vintage prints.

Unknown model by Kenneth Heilbron
Around 1962. Unknown model. Photo by Kenneth Heilbron.

As with Penn and Avedon, fashion was just one aspect of Heilbron’s work and he looked beyond it for less glamorous subject matter. But he didn’t go to the dark places that Avedon explored, nor did he pursue an aesthetic with the uncompromising rigour of Penn. Nevertheless, these days if he is known at all, Heilbron is admired above all for the photos he took from the late 1930s through the 1940s of Ringling Brothers Circus life and performers – shots which are both intimate and penetrating.

And those circus images bring to mind Avedon’s shoot with Dovima at the Cirque d’Hiver. Asked why he never tried to pose a model in a real circus, Heilbron replied that his clients would have found the concept unacceptable. He was hired to produce images of luxurious fantasy; however intriguing it might be, the backyard of the circus was not fashionable.

Other topics you may be interested in

The Young Look in the Theatre by Norman Parkinson
Norman Parkinson – photographer and fantasist
Mrs Alfred G Vanderbilt by Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon – art and commerce
Wilhelmina modelling a chiffon evening dress
Wilhelmina – glamour and tragedy

Filed Under: Fashion, Photographers Tagged With: Ivy Nicholson, Kenneth Heilbron, Wilhelmina

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