They included images of Fanny Brice, Billie Burke, Ruby Keeler, the Dolly Sisters, Ina Claire, Helen Morgan, Marilyn Miller, Grace Moore, Ann Pennington, Belle Baker and Ruth Etting, plus some well-known actors and actresses of the 1920s/1930s including Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Tyrone Power, Barbara Stanwyck, John Barrymore, Pearl White, Barbara LaMarr, Orson Welles, Clara Bow, Ethel Barrymore, Claudette Colbert, Corinne Griffith, Clara Kimball Young, Theda Bara, Mabel Normand, Helen Hayes, Norma Shearer, Anita Stewart, Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Marie Prevost, Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Miles Minter and Hope Hampton. In 1960, Alfred Cheney Johnston donated a set of 245 large prints of his work to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. All the shots in that book are “airbrushed” in the pubic area, to keep them legal with respect to the publishing standards of the day. It was called “Enchanting Beauty”, and contained 94 black-and-white photos. It was published in 1937, and devoted to his nudes and glamour photography. That said, only one book is known to have been published during his lifetime. Silent Movie Icon Clara Bow by © Alfred Cheney Johnston Most were showgirls from the Ziegfeld Follies, plus a great storehouse of both aspiring and known actors and actresses. Although, honestly, I’ve seen absolutely phenomenal clone images out of a Canon 5D using those Lomography Achromat lenses.Ī huge treasure trove of extremely artistic full-nude and semi-nude full-figure studio photos with all the glass-plate negatives were found stored at a farm near Oxford, Connecticut, where he had lived since the 1940’s. While it would be a rare find, similar types of lenses are now available from Lomography in their Daguerreotype Achromat series. And he continued to use it with a 2 inch Steinheil lens. However, he stubbornly continued to use his massive 11×14-inch view camera well into the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. But he also extensively used a Century 11×14 camera and glass plates, plus eventually the 6圆cm Zeiss Ikon, and 120 roll film. His choice of equipment might seem odd by the standards of today, even using the fairly common Graflex Speed Graphic 3 1/4 X 4 1/4 employed by Dorothea Lange, Edward Steichen and others during that period. Effectively, tastefully, of course but never as an excuse for lewdness nor for covering up a beautiful figure.” That’s why I’ve always used the simplest of drapes. On the other hand, I’ve always believed that if a woman had a beautiful body, it should be shown. Although he was quite well known for his nudes, he had stated,… “I’ve never been interested in making lewd photographs. But it was this affiliation that elevated him to being able to start photographing everything from aspiring actresses and society matrons to a wide range of upscale retail commercial products for magazine ads.ĭuring his career he ended up photographing several hundred actresses and showgirls, a few of who eventually became famous in the movies. Then in 1917 he met showman and producer Florenz Ziegfeld, and secured a contract to do all the images for the ‘Ziegfeld Follies’ for the next fifteen years. He had gotten married, and although it was a struggle, he managed to keep afloat. Hence, although he had a bit of camera experience using a camera to record his painting subjects, he jumped into photography as his new creative medium.īarbara Stanwyck and Billy Dove by © Alfred Cheney Johnston However, his endeavors into making a living as a portrait painter were unsuccessful. He began by painting and illustration at the National Academy of Design in New York. As he was born into a very affluent family of bankers, his turn to photography was a bit curious to everyone.
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