George Hurrell, also known as the "Grand Seigneur of the Hollywood Portrait," was to go down in history as the quintessential father of the Hollywood glamour shot. His beginnings with photography were unplanned as his focus was on painting and his camera skills were limited to documenting his paintings. In 1925 Hurrell moved from Kentucky to California with the intentions of completing his art education, when he stumbled into a photography gig with an actress. This moment of happenstance would be what would catapult him onto the history books.
After successfully photographing actress and the wife of studio production chief, Norma Shearer, Hurrell was hired to be MGM’s portrait photographer. He remained at this position for two years before leaving to begin his own photography studio on Sunset Blvd. After six successful years on his own he returned to the movies and took a position with Warner Bros.
In the fifties, after serving with the First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Force, Hurrell attempted to return to Hollywood only to find that his signature style of portrait photography had fallen out of vogue. Although he would continue to photograph for the remainder of his life and complete his work as a still photographer on set and various other assignments for contemporary celebrities.
Although George Hurrell may not have been the first to create this beautiful and elegant style of portraiture he was the photographer whom arguably perfected it. His images of glamorous and exquisite women would become a marker for years to come and photographers to follow. His use of dramatic lighting exceptional attention to detail would build a market that was imitated and recycled over and over. To this day there are studios that emulate this very style of portraiture. And due to the sophistication involved in Hurrell’s photography the images he created will always remain timeless and contemporary.
George Hurrell died of cancer in 1992.
To find more on George Hurrell go here: http://www.hurrelleditions.com
Portraits by George Hurrell in order:
1. Joan Crawford
2. Jane Russell
3. Greta Garbo
4. Susan Hayward
0 comments:
Post a Comment