Cornel Lucas

Cornel Lucas is a British photographer. Cornel Lucas with his Plate Camera, 1986
Photographed by Fi McGhee Brigitte Bardot 1954 -“When I first photographed Brigitte Bardot, she was going through a divorce from director Roger Vadim and was rather unhappy.- Marlene Dietrich, 1948 – “In the photographs, Marlene is wearing a wonderful mink cape with rose petals attached that she’d had made especially in Paris. I found out later that it had cost $40,000. –

Profile
Working first as a portraitist for British Film Studios during the 1940s and 1950s, and then as a freelance advertising and fashion photographer, Cornel Lucas has enjoyed a career at the forefront of portrait photography for over forty years.

Cornel Lucas was born in Highbury in London on 12th September 1920. One of eight children, he had six sisters and one elder brother whose work in a film-processing laboratory provided a first introduction to the film industry. Lucas started work aged fifteen as a junior trainee and also studied photography at the Regent Street Polytechnic. During World War Two he worked at the RAF Photographic School at Farnborough before going to work at Denham Studios in 1945. An early task was assisting Cecil Beaton on a portrait session for an Alexander Korda film.

His skill as a portraitist and stills man in the late 1940s lead to a special portrait session with Marlene Dietrich during the making of ‘No Highway’ (1951). The success of these images and the many others created up to this point lead to the Rank Organization suggesting he leave Denham and set up a specially equipped ‘Pool’ studio at Pinewood to photograph the fifty plus major stars they had under contract. A specially created portrait studio was fitted out on the site of an old swimming pool to mirror what Hollywood photographers such as Clarence Sinclair Bull had created for MGM in Hollywood in the 1930s.

From the late 1940s until the end of the 1950s Lucas took thousands of photographs at Pinewood and other studios as well as on film locations, creating many iconic images of the leading players of the era. In 1959 he left Pinewood to open his own studio in Flood Street in Chelsea where he made a second career embracing other aspects of photography including advertising and fashion photography whilst still continuing as a portraitist.

In the 1980s David Puttnam paid tribute to Lucas’ enduring talent by reviving interest in his career by commissioning new work on films that he had produced such as The Mission (1986) as well as writing the foreword to Lucas’ first book. In 1998 Lucas became the first Stills Photographer ever to be awarded a Bafta for his services to the British Film industry. Anouk Aimée – “My over-riding recollection is of Anouk Aimée’s hair blowing in the winds of the Sahara desert while we were filming ‘The Golden Salamander’ with Trevor Howard. – Leslie Caron, 1964 -“It was none other than Gene Kelly who discovered Leslie Caron, dancing with Roland Petit’s ballet company in Paris. When he saw her for the first time, he announced that he had found the leading lady for his new film ‘An American In Paris’. – Claudia Cardinale , 1958 – “With over one hundred movies to her name, and more in production, this great Italian beauty became an international star in the 60s. Her finest work was to be found in the films of the great Italian directors, particularly those of Luchino Visconti. – Katharine Hepburn, 1950 – “My first encounter with Katharine Hepburn was approached with trepidation. My friend Jack Hilyard, the lighting cameraman, was quick to point out that I had cause to be nervous: “She can be unforthcoming, even sharp, and will not be persuaded to do anything she doesn’t want to. Aside from this she doesn’t wear makeup. Best of luck!” – Susan Travers, 1961 – “I have known a number of exceptional and beautiful women in my lifetime, but Susan has more than enough grace and beauty to inspire any artist.

I met my wife when she was 18 years old and was sent to me by the Rank Organisation to be photographed. They were offering her a contract, as were ABC and 20th Century Fox in Hollywood.

How lucky I was that she decided two years later to award the very best contract of all to me. Susan has given me a life-long contract of marriage.

She thought she could have everything: a career, marriage and at least four children, but it was inevitable that we would decide that the last two would have priority. But she has continued to work, appearing on British television and in the theatre.” –

Gene Tierney, 1952 – “I had seen Miss Tierney in Preminger’s ‘Laura’ in 1944. It was a classic romantic tale of passion and obsession and Miss Tierney’s performance in it was electrifying. Her heart-shaped face was a dream factory creation that had astonishing impact in close-up. – Cornel with Anne Heywood

There was a time in Hollywood, during the 1940s and 1950s, when the making of a good glamour portrait could do as much for an actor’s reputation as a good movie.

Via Website: http://www.cornellucas.com/

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Gordon Parks

American Gothic, 1942

“American Gothic,” considered to be Parks’s signature image, was taken in Washington, D.C., in 1942, during the photographer’s fellowship with the Farm Security Administration, a government agency set up by President Roosevelt to aid farmers in despair. “It’s the first professional image I ever made,” Parks says, “created on my first day in Washington.” Roy Stryker, who led the FSA’s very best documentary photographers—Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, etc.—told Parks to go out and get acquainted with the city. Parks was amazed by the amount of bigotry and discrimination he encountered on his very first day. “White restaurants made me enter through the back door, white theaters wouldn’t even let me in the door, and as the day went on things just went from bad to worse.” Stryker told Parks to go talk with some older black people who had lived their entire lives in Washington and see how they had coped. “That’s how I met Ella,” Parks explains.
Ella Watson was a black charwoman who mopped floors in the FSA building. Parks asked her about her life, which she divulged as having been full of misery, bigotry and despair. Parks’s simple question, “Would you let me photograph you?” and Ella’s affirmative response, led to the photographer’s most recognizable image of all time. “Two days later Stryker saw the image and told me I’d gotten the right idea but was going to get all the FSA photogs fired, that my image of Ella was ‘an indictment of America.’ I thought the image had been killed but one day there it was, on the front page of The Washington Post .” At the time, Parks couldn’t have realized that the image would go on to become the symbol of the pre-civil rights era’s treatment minorities.

Gordon Parks

Biography:

Gordon Parks (b. 1912) wrote about his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas, in his autobiographical novel and subsequent film, The Learning Tree, which was among the 25 films placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1989. He went on to direct other films, to author several books, and to write original musical compositions, film scores, and a ballet. Lady Modeling a Shoulder “Lei” of Natural Red Fox, Selling For $165, 1957

He established his reputation as a world-renowned photojournalist for Life Magazine, chronicling the Civil Rights movement for two decades. His work for Vogue magazine established him as a master of fashion photography. A major retrospective exhibit of Parks’s work, Half Past Autumn: The Art of Gordon Parks opened at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in 1998 and toured the United States. HBO produced a documentary on Parks, also titled Half Past Autumn. Current fashion influenced by the 20’s. 1959

As a filmmaker, he was the first African-American to direct a major Hollywood production with the poignant memoir of his youth The Learning Tree, filmed on location in Fort Scott. He also broke new ground with a hip black hero on the silver screen named Shaft. Girls wearing bandannas, looking out over Central Park. 1952

Parks received the National Medal of Arts in 1988 and has received over fifty honorary doctorates. His fifth autobiography and a new book of poetry were published in November of 2005. Mr. Parks died on March 7, 2006 and was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery in his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas on March 16, 2006. Slouch Hat in Garbo Tradition Made of White Satin For Cocktail Outfit , 1959 Model Wearing Latest Spring Fashions, 1957 Model Wearing Latest Spring Fashions, 1957 Model Wearing Latest Spring Fashions, 1957 Women modeling evening suits, 1958 Woman Wearing Daridow Copy of Chanel Evening Suit, 1958 French fashion model Simone Bodin posing at tannery in leather suit printed in small neat design, 1956 Model wearing nursemaid’s kerchief which has a stiff coronet and strings that go under hair to tie through a loop at its back by Lilly Dache, 1952

Links:

http://www.pdngallery.com/legends/parks/mainframeset.shtml

http://www.gordonparkscenter.org/

All Images by © Time Inc. For personal non-commercial use only

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Tom Palumbo

Tom Palumbo

“In America, the photographer is not simply the person who records the past, but the one who invents it.”

Susan Sontag

Personal & Family Photos

Portrait in Palumbo studio on Park Avenue South with family Studio, mid 1950’s Anne with Johnny Anne and Tom Model Anne St. Marie in San Francisco, 1964 (Palumbo was married to Anne St. Marie) Probably taken around 1959-1960 One of my favorite photos of Anne, circa 1959 Anne St. Marie for Vogue, circa 1960 Legendary Anne St. Marie

Fashion photos Harper’s Bazaar, 1956/57 Fashion for THE NEW YORK TIMES (the backdrop in a foggy day) 1956 Vogue, 1958 Appeared in Harper’s Bazaar circa 1956 Bazaar May 1957 A shot taken for Bazaar, 1954 Advertisement, mid 1950’s Appeared in Harper’s Bazaar in 1958 Saks In the mid 1950’s (Your Attention, Please!)

Tom Palumbo (1921–2008) was a United States photographer and director. He was born in Molfetta Italy in 1921. His family moved when he was about 12 years old to New York City. As a young man Palumbo was employed first building scale models for ships in an engineering company. Later he was employed as an assistant by photographer James Abbe. His experience working with Abbe led him to commercial work in fashion photography. His early campaign work for Peck & Peck Department Store appears in Vogue and Bazaar Magazines from 1949 to 1953.

Celebrities

Audrey Hepburn on set

Cary Grant Opening of To Catch a Thief, 1955 James Stewart & Family for Bazaar, 1956 Grace Kelly for BazaarTruman Capote, Gloria Vanderbilt & Friend Jack Kerouac

He was a staff photographer of Vogue from 1959 until 1962 and at Harper’s Bazaarfrom 1953 until 1959, where he worked with the great art directors, Alex Liberman and Alexi Brodovitch. He was a vice-president of creative productions at Ted Bates, where he oversaw all TV commercials. He was a life-long member of the Actors Studio. He taught photography at Rhode Island School of Design, and he taught directing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He directed plays off-Broadway and in regional theatres. His last production was An Evening of Proust at Lincoln Center.He was a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

Tom Palumbo was married to Patricia Bosworth. Tom died in October 2008.

Best Shot

Anne St. Marie Swimming Unpublished

I love his work, so alive and fresh, even today. Thanks Tom

Biography via: Wikipedia

Official Site : http://www.tompalumbo.com/

Copyright © 2005 Tom Palumbo, All Rights Reserved.

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Irving Penn

In his memory, here is a selection of memorable images from Irving Penn. Irving Penn Irving Penn’s studio, Paris, 1950. © Irving Penn

Irving Penn was born June 16, 1917 in Plainfield, N.J. Educated in public schools, he enrolled at the age of 18 in a four-year course at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, where Alexey Brodovitch taught him advertising design. While training for a career as an art director, Penn worked the last two summers for Harper’s Bazaar magazine as an office boy and apprentice artist, sketching shoes. At this time he had no thought of becoming a photographer. Cocoa-colored Ba lenciaga dress by Irving Penn, 1950 Copyright 1950 (renewed 1978) by Condé Nast Publications Inc. Cafe in Lima by Irving Penn, Vogue. Feb. 15, 1949

His first job on graduating in 1938 was art director of the Junior League magazine, later he worked in the same capacity for Saks Fifth Avenue department store. At the age of 25, he quit his job and used his small savings to go to Mexico, where he painted a full year before he convinced himself he would never be more than a mediocre painter. “Woman with Roses on her Arm” Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, New York, 1950

Returning to New York, he won an audience with Alexander Liberman, art director of Vogue magazine, who hired Penn as his assistant, specifically to suggest photographic covers for Vogue. Man Lighting Girl’s Cigarette, New York, 1949

The staff photographers didn’t think much of his ideas, but Liberman did and asked Penn to take the pictures himself. Using a borrowed camera, and drawing on his art background and experience, Penn arranged a still life consisting of a big brown leather bag, beige scarf and gloves, lemons, oranges, and a huge topaz. It was published as the Vogue cover for the issue of October 1, 1943, and launched Penn on his photographic career.Woman in Moroccan palace (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Marrake
Irving Penn 1951

“Photographing a cake can be art,” Irving Penn asserted when he opened his studio in 1953. Before long he was backing up his statement with a series of advertising illustrations that created a new high standard in the field and established a reputation that has kept him in the top bracket ever since. Penn has won renown as much in editorial photography as in advertising illustration, and his innovations especially in portraiture and still life have set him apart stylistically. In later years he turned to television commercials as a outlet for his unique talent. One of the most imitated among contemporary photographers, his work has been widely recognized and extolled. Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn in Balenciaga, 1950 Lisa Fonssagrive by Irving Penn. She was the first great supermodel and worked between 1930’s to 1950’s and was married to fashion photographer Irving Penn

In addition to his work for Vogue magazine (the American, British, and French editions) Penn has been represented in many important photographic collections, including those of the Museum of Modem Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1958 Irving Penn was named one of “The World’s 10 Greatest Photographers” in an international poll conducted by Popular Photography Magazine. Penn’s statement at the time is a remarkable summation of purpose and idealism: “I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children. Penn for Vogue Black and white, 1950

” “Irving Penn’s perception of form is at the highest end of what’s possible. He’s the only photographer I think of when I admire fine art and commercialism at the same time – his personal work and commercial portfolio are melded beautifully. I love that. I find it really inspiring. Everyone hopes for that, because everyone wants to make a living. It’s so easy to get swept up in market success. Irving Penn keeps a high level of integrity in both. Whether you see a reproduction in Vogue or a print at PaceMacGill Gallery, each is as physically beautiful as the other.”

By Nicholas NixonRichard Avedon photographed by Irving Penn, 1978 Diane von Furstenberg, Vogue, c. 1968 Large Sleeve (Sunny Harnett), New York, 1951 Irving Penn © Archives du Palais Princier-Monaco
Grace Kelly

My favorite shot

Shalom’s impenetrable elegance by Irving Penn. Vogue, 1996

Via: http://www.photo-seminars.com/

Official Site: http://www.irvingpenn.com/

“Photographing a cake can be art,” he said in 1953. Irving Penn is one of my favorite photographers. His works are considered icons.

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Henry Clarke

Born in Los Angeles in 1918, Henry Clarke, the renowned fashion photographer, discovered his calling in 1945 whilst working as an accessorist at Condé Nast in New York. During an encounter with the great Cecil Beaton during a photography session at Vogue’s studio, Clarke was entranced by the photographic image. Clarke’s Studio, 1951

He promptly abandoned his fashion job, borrowed a Rolleiflex camera and began taking pictures.
Deciding to try his luck abroad, Clarke moved to Paris in 1949. There his friend, Robert Randall, reintroduced him to the fashion world. He quickly found work at Fémina, L’Album de Figaro and Harper’s Bazaar. Clarke at work, 1951

The next year he began a fruitful collaboration with the French, English and American editions of Vogue that would last more than a quarter-century. With the help of women like Suzy Parker, Ann Sainte Marie and Bettina, the most glamorous models of the day, Clarke captured the elegance of the modern woman: young, lively, carefree and seductive. Bettina, Lanvin, 1951

He also took celebrity portraits: Anna Magnani, Coco Chanel, Sophia Loren and Maria Callas were among his best known subjects. In the 1960’s, Diana Vreeland, the formidable editor of Vogue, sent him to such exotic locations as Syria, Iran, India and Mexico to create exciting fashion layouts. Upon his death in 1996, it was revealed that Henry Clarke had named the Institut Pasteur as universal legatee of his estate. He bequeathed his historical collection of photographs to the Musée de la Mode et du Costume in Paris.

Famous Shot

Coco Chanel Designing Clothing, 1954

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Fashion Photos Givenchy, 1952 Chanel, 1954

Dior, 1954 Jean Desses, 1954

Model Wearing Givenchy Short-Sleeved Dress, 1955 Model in front of London store window, wearing tweed sheath coat dress and hat, both by Dior, 1955 Model in collarless suit with straight skirt and Persian lamb scarf, both by Balenciaga, leaning against railing, 1955 Model in front of Mercedes, wearing tweed dress, matching coat with fur collar, fur hat, and gloves (all by Patou), holding handbag, with L’Arc de Triomphe in background, 1955 Model Wearing Balenciaga Dress with Double-Breasted Skirt, 1955 Fath, 1956 December 1957

Savoir-faire, December 1957 Cottons on Holiday: Pretty Sun-Seekers, July 1956 Griffe, 1958 Madeleine de Rauch, 1956 Dior, 1957 Givenchy, 1959

Gloved model holding a cigarette, wearing a vented, red plaid steamer coat that reveals a long dress of silver and white paillettes; with diamond necklace, earrings and bracelet; being escorted by a gentleman in tuxedo across the Promenade at the New York theatre. Dress and coat by Ben Reig. Jewelry by Harry Winston, 1958 Model in Otter Hide Coat with Snow Leopard Lining, 1959 Model wearing hat of feathers, worked to look like silk, in a pale orange, by Adolfo of Emme. Worn with brown wool tweed coat, pinned with Verdura brooch, 1959 Model at the harbor next to the ship Oriana, greeting someone in the distance, wearing khaki travel suit by Frederick Starke, 1962

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Muse Muse Anne Saint-Marie pour Balenciaga, 1955 Anne Saint-Marie pour Balenciaga, 1955 Anne Sainte-Marie pour Jacques Fath, 1955 Anne Sainte-Marie pour Lanvin, 1955 Anne Saint-Marie pour Chanel, 1955 Canada Furs, 1957 Anne Saint-Marie test de maquillage, 1955

———————————————————————————Portraits Anna Magnani, 1950

Suzy Parker, Dior, Monte Carlo, 1954 Vicomtesse de Ribes, 1956 Mrs. Loel Guinness and Daughter Modeling, 1957 Marie-Helene Arnaud pour Desses, 1957 Comtesse Consuelo Crespi, 1952 Margaret Philips, 1957 Gabrielle Chanel Sitting at Home Wearing Jersey Suit, 1954 Dorian Leigh pour Jacques Heim, 1955 Gilbert Orcel, 1956 Designer Marie-Helene Arnaud in Suit by Chanel, 1959

Marella Agnelli, Wife of Fiat Heir, Italy’s Unofficial First Lady Baroness Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1962 Cary Grant in Kiss Them for Me, 1957 Mimi Darcangues pour Chanel, 1958 Joanna McCormick pour Dior, 1957 Simone D´Alliencourt, 1959 Anne Saint-Marie pour Lilly Dache, 1958 Marie-Helene Arnaud pour Chanel, 1958 Joanna McCormick pour Chanel, 1957 Betsy Pickering pour Dior, 1959 Claudette Colbert Modeling Satin Dress, 1959 Rosalind Russell, 1959 Sophia Loren, 1959

Suzy Parker, Vuitton/Chanel, 1960 Mrs. Loel Guinness wearing hat, pearl necklace and earrings, and diamond pin, which she designed and which was constructed by Cartier, 1961

Anouk Aimée pour Vogue, 1963 Orson Welles, 1962 Head shot of Ana Maria de Moraes Barros wearing large silk headdress with several layers of ruching around the face and under the chin, from Lanvin Boutique, 1965 Veruschka wearing striped wool full-length coat over striped chiffon dress by Valentino, 1966 Baroness Fiona Thyssen-Bornemisza sporting Cover Girl makeup shades, white coolie hat with cigaline veiling by Anello, 1966 Barbara Bach straddles tile steps of the Castello San’Nicola outside Palermo, Sicily; wearing a bright red dress with brass buttoned belt and low pockets, by Teal Traina, with broad brimmed red hat by Halston, 1967

Benedetta Barzini pour Pauline Trige, 1967 Samantha Jones pour Foquet, 1967 Actor James Coburn wearing a block-printed silk shirt, matching scarf, and white pants, all by Bill Blass for P.B.M, 1968 Marisa Berenson posed on rocks of Sardinian coastline, (Italy)wearing a Pucci slip, in brightish pastel colors, and wearing a wreath of white flowers in her hair, 1967

Monica Vitti, 1969 Sophia Loren sitting down taking care of her wigs as she packs them, 1972 Actress Raquel Welch wearing a chiffon and gold lame blouson with dyed fox collar and cuffs by Valentino, 1972

———————————————————————————Cover Vogue 1951

Vogue 1955 Vogue 1955 Twiggy, Vogue, 1967

———————————————————————————Best Shot Model descending staircase outside of the Marqueza de Santos house in Rio, Brazil, with a young carnival ‘hero’ wearing cloak of many jewels. Model is dressed in chartreuse asymmetrical floor length chiffon dress by Malcolm Starr and Joseph Warner bracelets, 1966

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