Vanity Fairs Portraits: Photographs 1913 – 2008 at National Portrait Gallery
By Ryan • Feb 13th, 2008 • Category: News for Creatives (archives), Photography“LONDON.-The National Portrait Gallery, London, presents Vanity Fairs Portraits: Photographs 1913 – 2008, on view through May 26, 2008. Some of the greatest portrait photographs of the twentieth century were taken for, or published in, Vanity Fair. This remarkable selection of 150 classic images features works from the magazine’s first period (19131936), displayed for the first time with works from the contemporary Vanity Fair (1983-present).
In the first period, celebrated subjects such as Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin and Jean Harlow are shown in portraits by legendary photographers, among them Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, Baron De Meyer, Man Ray and George Hurrell. From the magazine’s re-launch in 1983, the works of photographers including Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Bruce Weber and Mario Testino are featured, depicting a wide range of subjects from Arthur Miller to Madonna.
From the beginning, British, Irish and American authors were frequently profiled and their writings published in Vanity Fair, and among the vintage portraits shown in the exhibition are iconic images of H.G. Wells, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Rebecca West, Ernest Hemingway and George Bernard Shaw. The magazine’s mix of artistic seriousness and popular celebrity meant that commissioned portraits of these authors and artists such as Claude Monet, Augustus John and the leaders of the avant-garde (photographed by Man Ray), were displayed alongside profiles of actors, musicians and athletes.
In addition to showing the works of acknowledged leaders in early portrait photography, Vanity Fair Portraits features the works of now lesser-known practitioners, among them the great British-born theatre photographer, Florence Vandamm. Her portrait of American actress Alice White and her group portrait of the Albertina Rasch Dancers, both taken in the late 1920s, remind us of her singular talent and re-establish her in the canon of great portrait photographers of the early twentieth century. “
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