GEORGE HOYNINGEN-HUENE
American
A leading fashion photographer between the
World Wars, George Hoyningen-Huene brought
an austere elegance to haute couture with sharp,
polished images often bearing strong classical
overtones. His work appeared in the principal
fashion magazines of the time and had a significant
impact, not only on contemporaries like Horst P.
Horst and Cecil Beaton, but also on later photo-
graphers, including Irving Penn, Richard Avedon,
and Herb Ritts.
Hoyningen-Huene was born to nobility in Saint
Petersburg, Russia in 1900, and refinement and
luxury were the mainstays of his childhood. His
father was a baron, in charge of the czar’s eques-
trian activities, and his mother was an American
socialite. His early years were divided between the
imperial court, a country estate in Estonia, and
family tours of Europe. His appreciation for
Renaissance and Classical art developed out of his
European travels and was reinforced by frequent
visits to the Hermitage. Despite a passion for his-
tory and archaeology, he was a mediocre student,
excelling only in his drawing lessons.
With World War I and the Russian revolution, his
family went into exile, first in Britain, then on the
French Riviera. In 1918, Hoyningen-Huene joined a
British expeditionary force fighting in Russia, where
he witnessed famine and death firsthand. Upon his
discharge, he moved to Paris to work as a film extra
and perfect his drawing skills under the tutelage of
cubist artist Andre ́Lhote before starting as an illus-
trator in his sister’s fashion design studio, Yteb. His
easy manner, exacting eye, and social pedigree
assured him access to the highest echelons of the
fashion world, and by 1925 his drawings were
appearing inHarper’s Bazaar.He signed an exclu-
sive contract with Conde ́ Nast a year later and
designed photo backdrops for FrenchVoguebefore
finding the opportunity to work behind the lens.
Too restless behind the drafting table, Hoyningen-
Huene took quickly to the collaborative spirit of the
photography studio, contributing photographs to
VogueandVanity Fair.Edward Steichen,Vogue’s
head of photography and a major force in fashion at
the time, heavily influenced Hoyningen-Huene’s
early photographic style in stressing a modernist
crispness with hard, modulated light that empha-
sized smooth lines, sculptural form, and fine detail.
Hoyningen-Huene adeptly incorporated these traits
into his work, as seen inLee Miller, Coiffure by
Callon, 1930, (Lee Miller was later to become a
well-known photographer herself), where a plain
backdrop and reflected light center attention on the
nuances of the model’s hairstyle and dress.
Despite his debt to Steichen, Hoyningen-Huene
worked beyond these technical basics to develop his
own style, adding a classical flavor derived from his
extensive knowledge of art history. In costuming
and form, the languidLisa Fonssagrives, Evening
Dress by Vionnet, 1938, pays homage to the neo-
classicism paintings of Jacques Louis David, while
the smooth male torso inBeach Fashion, c. 1930,
suggests a fragment of Greek sculpture much like
that found in Hoyningen-Huene’s laterFallen Sta-
tue, Isle of Delos, c.1943.
An equally significant component of Hoyningen-
Huene’s Conde ́Nast work was his taste for gender
indeterminacy, especially in his swimwear shoots,
where he often depicted androgyny and role rever-
sal. This aspect of his style derived in part from his
close ties to the Surrealists—he was friends with
Man Ray and Jean Cocteau, among others—but
also likely drew on his own experiences as a homo-
sexual in 1920s Paris. InBettina Jones, Beachwear
by Schiaparelli, 1928, a woman leans beside a seated
man, coolly peering down at him over her cigarette
smoke as though she has cornered her next con-
quest. Hoyningen-Huene’s most famous image,
Swimwear by Izod(also known asDivers), 1930,
addresses sexual ambiguity through simplified for-
mal composition. With remarkably similar bodies,
hairstyles, and swimsuits, a man and woman turn
their backs to the camera, and, as her legs perfectly
overlap his, their symmetry suggests they are merely
two sides of a single being.
In addition to his fashion layouts, Hoyningen-
Huene gained a reputation as a celebrity portraitist,
making images of people as diverse as the movies’
Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller, and fashion designer
Coco Chanel. He had a special talent for movieHOYNINGEN-HUENE, GEORGE