de Meyer, Eickemeyer, Geisler, Marceau, Strelecki

[mrcheese]

New York: de Meyer, Eickemeyer, Floyd, Geisler, Marceau, Strelecki


Adolph De Meyer
Time Period: 1913-1922
Location: 80 West 40th Street, Manhattan
“In the 1890s De Meyer absorbed the pictorialist aesthetics of the international art photography movement, exhibited portraits, and was invited to join the international association of art photographers, 'The Linked Ring.' Gravures of his photography appeared in CAMERA WORK. His encounter with the Ballet Russe, with its exoticism, integral conception of aesthetic effect, and its experimentalism jolted De Meyer from his prettiness. His portraits of dancer Vaslav Nijinsky began to explore the beautiful in terms of the uncanny, rather than the indistinct, the usual mode of pictorialist abstraction. At VOGUE and VANITY FAIR De Meyer seized the opportunity given him, filling the pages with images remarkable for their design, lighting (he was the first to under-spot faces in conjunction with backlighting), and detail. The photographs dramatized poise, and were remarkable for their stillness and composure. De Meyer concurrently undertook careers in the fields of clothing design and interior decoration, so that certain of his pictures were suites in which his creative intelligence was reflected in every feature. One element of his photographic arts was the projection of domestic interiors as utopias of taste. Often furniture has as much artistic meaning in a De Meyer scene as a sitter.”
© David S. Shields
http://broadway.cas.sc.edu/index.php...ographer&id=55


Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr.
Time Period: 1895-1916
Location: New York
“When pictorialism went foggy in the last years of the 19th century, Eickemeyer was held up as the artistic alternative to the Salon style. To emphasize the different his exhibition prints became increasing narrative in implication, resolutely representational, and sometimes moral in point. The sentimental ethnography of his images of rural life in 1901’s picture book, THE OLD FARM and black sharecropper families in his 1902 book, DOWN SOUTH would seem increasingly old fashioned with every passing year of the 20th century. Yet Eickemeyer had his fascinations with the pleasure of the simply visual. His book devoted to representing Winter had the sort of clear focus sharpness that anticipated the Ansel Adams aesthetic. Furthermore, his theater and movie star portraits for Campbell contributed as much as Adolph De Meyer’s in creating the emerging grammar of glamour photography. Eickemeyer’s portrait style influence Frank Geisler and Alfred Cheney Johnston particularly.”
© David S. Shields
http://broadway.cas.sc.edu/index.php...ographer&id=67


Floyd
Time Period: 1910s
Location: New York


Frank E. Geisler
Time Period: 1913-1928
Location: 9 East 34th St, NYC, 451 Fifth Ave, later, Palm Beach
“A skilled and restless artist, Frank Geisler, tried his hand at several genres of photography during his career: theatrical portraitst, ethnographic recorder, and architectural photographer. In New York, he became for a decade the chief rival of Ira L. Hill. He was a talented portraitist and an imaginative early fashion photographer (he shines particularly in the contributions to the fashion section of THE THEATRE), but could never maintain his business. His photographs of members of the Ziegfeld Follies from 1919-1921 are particularly exciting,--brightly illuminated and dramatically posed--an alternative vision to the richly tone visions of A. C. Johnston.”
© David S. Shields
http://broadway.cas.sc.edu/index.php...ographer&id=37


Theodore C. Marceau
Time Period: 1890-1922
Location: 285 Fifth Avenue, NY, and branches in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Boston
“Col. Marceau ran a diversified photographic studio that did portraiture, scientific photography, and occasional photojournalism. Upon Marceau's marriage to actress Jeanne Allen in 1891, he became greatly interested in theatrical portraiture. Made extensive use of props, drapes, and painted backdrops in his portraits. Well connected to the political establishment, Marceau also specialized in official portraiture, travel images, and advertising photography. His various branches were run as local service photography shops, doing home photography, Society shots, and official function images.”
© David S. Shields
http://broadway.cas.sc.edu/index.php...ographer&id=28


Jean de Strelecki
Time Period: 1915-1935
Location: Newport R.I., 135 W. 44th St NYC, Pasadena
“De Strelecki favored portraiture over every other genre of photography, though he would do outdoor event photography if the remuneration was sufficiently great. He favored richly toned, deeply shaded photographs and often depicted his subjects standing, shot from a slightly declined angle to give them stature. At times in the 1920s he used a soft focus lens. His theatrical photography featured performers in moments of action or emotion. His Society portraiture, in contrast, often depicted persons in self-possessed repose.”
© David S. Shields
http://broadway.cas.sc.edu/index.php...ographer&id=65


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