fashion statements since the sitters almost always
wore their best and fanciest clothes. But these pho-
tographs were limited in distribution, generally
only seen by the immediate family and friends,
and were not created for advertising or other com-
mercial purposes. The half-tone process, invented
in the early 1890s, made the direct reproduction of
a photograph possible. Prior to this advance the
lithographic process was used to reproduce photo-
graphs, requiring the hand of an artist to transfer
the image from photograph to the metal plate or
wood block. The half-tone process reduced the
continuous tone of a photo into a series of small
and large dots on a printing plate. The realism of
the photograph was thus brought to the mass
circulation media, and everyone who could afford
to buy a magazine could discover the latest fash-
ion trends.
History
The first fashion photographer to achieve that dis-
tinction was Baron Adolph de Meyer (1868–1946).
His first photographic work appeared in 1894 in
various exhibitions in London, Paris, New York,
and Brussels, where it was noted that he was a
dedicated amateur. The term ‘‘amateur’’ was used
at this time to denote someone of considerable
artistic and intellectual abilities as opposed to com-
mercial practice. He married Olga Caracciolo in
1896 or 1897 and the marriage provided him with
entree to fashionable social circles as well as the title
Baron. Practising the soft-focus Pictorialist style in
ascendancy during the era, de Meyer became a mem-
ber of the Linked Ring Brotherhood, the Royal
Photographic Society, and the Photo-Secessionists
in 1908. During these years de Meyer acquired a
strong reputation as a portrait photographer parti-
cularly of high society and the artistic circles. His
fashion career began in 1914 when he signed a con-
tract with Conde ́Nast to be the first full-time pho-
tographer forVogueandVanity Fairmagazines.
There were numerous instances where de Meyer
provided not only the photography, but also con-
tributed his skills as an accomplished writer and
layout artist in the form of complete articles for
these magazines. In 1921, he accepted an offer from
William Randolph Hearst to work forHarper’s
Bazaar magazine, where he gained even greater
editorial control. He continued working forHar-
per’s Bazaaruntil 1929 when his contract was not
renewed and the magazine officially changed its
name toHarper’s Bazaar. Following the death of
his wife Olga in 1931 he traveled throughout Eur-
ope. He made a permanent move to Hollywood,
California, in 1939 under the threat of Hitler’s
advances in Europe. While he continued to make
a few society portraits, his success was largely for-
gotten and he died in relative obscurity of coronary
thrombosis in 1946 in Los Angeles.
Baron de Meyer was a technically and visually
brilliant photographer. He often used back or side
lighting of his subjects, a technique that is not often
used today. His models were largely drawn from
the ranks of high society or from the theatre world,
a practice that has continued. Towards the end of
his career as fashion photographer he was strongly
influenced by Modernism in the arts, principally
Dada and Surrealism, and he began to increasingly
photograph his subjects in profile. The best exam-
ples of his work in these new directions were a
series of advertisements he produced for the Eliza-
beth Arden Cosmetics Company in which his mod-
els became increasingly stylized and unnatural, a
newly constructed style of femininity.
American born Man Ray (1890–1976) lived and
worked in France during most of his adult life. His
work as a fashion photographer was far reaching in
terms of its visual impact and influence on other
photographers, but has been overshadowed by his
work as a painter, film maker, inventor, and sculp-
tor. He arrived in Paris in 1921 and a year later his
first rayographs were published inVanity Fair.Man
Ray’s photographs were extensions of his artistic
development and visions, and often highly experi-
mental and like his peer Francis Bruguiere inte-
grated Surrealist and Dada effects.
Another baron, Baron George Hoyningen-Huene,
who was born in Russia, followed Baron de Meyer.
He fled to Paris in 1921 and along with Man Ray,
became the chief photographer in 1926 forVogue.
His style of work was quite similar to that of Baron
de Meyer, using back and side lighting of his subjects.
Visually his subjects became Greek sculptures, his
lighting revealed texture and volume, and garments
became the center point of all of his photographs.
Horst P. Horst was born in 1906 in Germany
and was trained as an architect. At age 24 Le
Corbusier accepted him as an apprentice in his
Paris office. During his stay in Paris he met Baron
George Hoyningen-Huene and traveled with him
that winter to England to meet with Cecil Beaton,
the BritishVoguephotographer, whose elaborate
costuming and set design and decoration reflected
his theatrical and briefly influential vision. Early in
1931 Horst was hired byVogue, initially to do
design and layout work, but late that year his first
photographs were published in the magazine. His
visual style was again similar to that of de Meyer
and Huene using elements of Greek mythology asFASHION PHOTOGRAPHY