Gloria Swanson
Photograph
Gloria Swanson
A Much Screened Lady - Gloria Swanson
1924
Gelatin silver print
Image: 9 9/16 × 7 5/8 in. (24.3 × 19.4 cm)
Paper: 9 15/16 × 8 in. (25.3 × 20.3 cm)
Bequest of Edward Steichen
1979.2350.0001
Inscriptions Inscribed in pencil on verso TLC: 128 [circled]
Inscribed in black grease pencil on verso C: 3.
Inscribed in pencil on verso BRC: Case 24 \ Gloria Swanson N.Y. 1924 \ V.F. Feb 1924 & Feb 1928
Inscribed in black grease pencil on verso C: 3.
Inscribed in pencil on verso BRC: Case 24 \ Gloria Swanson N.Y. 1924 \ V.F. Feb 1924 & Feb 1928
TextBy the end of World War I, Edward Steichen had left behind the soft-focus, Symbolist-inspired Pictorial photography for which he had become known. His knowledge and appreciation of French avant-garde art led him to the conclusion that photographs should not strive toward painting or drawing in order to be understood as art. Instead, he thought, photographers should celebrate the intrinsic advantages of the photographic medium as a modern art form. The camera’s automatic transcription of three dimensions into two depicted the world as a precise arrangement of shapes and tones on a flat surface; Steichen believed that photographers should exploit that fact to create images with the graphic power to communicate directly with viewers. When magazine publisher Condé Nast hired Steichen as chief photographer in 1923, he brought this modernist aesthetic vision directly to the public in celebrity portraits for Vanity Fair and fashion photographs for Vogue. Steichen made this portrait of actress Gloria Swanson at the peak of her early fame. By choosing to photograph her in extreme close-up with a black veil between the star and the camera’s lens, Steichen created an image of Swanson that is simultaneously intimate and mysterious—distinctly glamorous.
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
See alsoSee also
VariantVariant
