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Louis
Dahl-Wolfe:
The American Image
Review by Lesley Martin
Louise
Dahl-Wolfe was one of foremost female fashion photographers of
the Forties and Fifties, but few have given her due respect until
now. Fortunately, a new exhibit of her work at the Museum of the
Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City (June 12-August
12) goes a long way toward restoring her title as The Grand Dame
of Fashion.
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Mary
Jane Russell models a coat by Anthony Blotta and a turban
by Mr. John on location in New Jersey with Chrysler’s
"Imperial" sedan.
Harper’s Bazaar, April 1955
© Louise Dahl-Wolfe |
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Dahl-Wolfe
was a remarkable pioneer with the then-new and relatively
untried technology of color photography and color-reproductions
for magazines.
Louise
Dahl-Wolfe was one of foremost female fashion photographers of
the Forties and Fifties, but few have given her due respect until
now. Fortunately, a new exhibit of her work at the Museum of the
Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City (June 12-August
12) goes a long way toward restoring her title as The Grand Dame
of Fashion.
Dahl-Wolfe
was a remarkable pioneer with the then-new and relatively untried
technology of color photography and color-reproductions for magazines.
From
1938 to 1959, she was the primary photographer for Harper’s
Bazaar, a magazine with considerable fashion and graphic design
vision under the direction of Alexei Brodovitch and legendary
fashion editors Carmel Snow and Diana Vreeland. In 1958, Dahl-Wolfe
ceded her mantle to none other than Richard Avedon, and for one
reason or another, became eclipsed, little known or shown. Nonetheless,
she left an indelible mark on the way American fashions and American
women were seen; Avedon himself said of her, "Louise Dahl-Wolfe
was the definition of elegance and beauty. She led the way out
of the European tradition into the supremacy of American fashion
photography." In addition to her ground-breaking work in
color, her use of locations outside the studio (including small
villages in Spain, Tunisia, the New Jersey shore, and other exotic
locales) and loose, carefree poses, helped mold the image of American
women as on-the-go, yet o-so-chic. Her vision became the clean
and wholesome "New American look" of the post-war industrial
era.
In
the darkened hall of the Museum at FIT, spotlights tightly focus
on each of the tearsheets on display. You feel as though you have
just stepped into a sanctuary of sorts. The walls are jam packed
with more than 150 images, primarily in color, but some of her
black-and-white work is also featured, in particular portraits
of celebrities like Orson Welles, Mae West, and Billie Holiday.
The color works on display are not actual prints, but pages carefully
removed from the magazines for which she photographed. During
the time Dahl-Wolfe worked, photography in general—let alone
fashion photography—was little valued as a fine art. Magazines
that employed some of the best and brightest photographers of
that era periodically threw out the backlog of original prints
and negatives.
Given
the added fact that the medium was unstable at that time (it tended
to discolor and fade), it’s understandable, if unfortunate,
that very little remains of Dahl-Wolfe’s work. However, it
adds to the nostalgic patina of the photographs to see them as
most of the world experienced her images: as air-brushed, half-tone
reproductions on thin, glossy magazine stock. Frequently, the
images on display feature the original text as it ran in the magazines
("Be round-headed! Be brassy!"), adding an additional
layer of cultural context.
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| Suit
by Kort Lee, John Frederics hat. Harper's Bazaar, August
1952 Tear sheet © Louise Dahl-Wolfe |
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I
have to admit I’m enamoured of the work—and not only because
of the subdued, yet lush "High Society" palette or the
crisp, snappy compositions that fill Dahl-Wolfe’s frames (or
because I’m the editor of the forthcoming retrospective monograph).
I am entranced by the full-arch of the eyebrows, the sporty yet
still-elegant gestures of the sleekly gloved hands, and a hundred
other subtle intricacies of the hair, wardrobes, and personas of
the lithe women in these photos. The trim, just-so styles of those
decades are full of inspirations for today’s retro-influenced
fashions, and I’m tempted to take the soon-to-be published
catalog over to a designer-friend’s house and force her to
make me a new wardrobe in the get-up-and-go style of Claire MacCardell
or the retro-futurism of Traina-Norell.
If
you have the opportunity, hurry to catch this show before
it closes on August 12.
And if you don’t live in New York, look for the catalog
(Louis Dahl-Wolfe, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.) due out in Fall
2000. It’s the perfect source material for designers,
photographers, and retro-enthusiasts longing for that
classic yet dynamic look, and a fitting tribute to a photographer
ignored for much too long.
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