Fast and Incredibly Chic
During the ‘20s and ‘30s, Edward Steichen was arguably the most in-demand photographer in America. To save time for all his projects, he would skip the hassle of parking in Manhattan and drive his car straight into the elevator of his Upper East Side studio—and out into his office on the third floor. But his pictures—each one a small, elegantly composed drama—never betrayed the speed with which he worked. “Edward Steichen in the 1920s and 1930s,” an exhibition of the master’s still lifes, portraiture, advertising, and fashion work during this era, on view at the Whitney Museum in New York, is a reminder of the master’s unfailing eye. “Edward Steichen in the 1920s and 1930s: A Recent Acquisition” runs through February 2014 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave in New York.
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Edward Steichen, Marlene Dietrich, (1931). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Steichen/Vanity Fair; © Condé Nast.
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Edward Steichen, Gallant Fox (for Vanity Fair), 1930. Courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art.
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Edward Steichen, Vogue Fashion (Marion Morehouse in Vionnet evening gown and wrap), 1930. Courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art.
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Edward Steichen, Ad for Coty Lipstick, (c. 1930). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; © Permission of the Estate of Edward Steichen.
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Edward Steichen, Foxgloves, France, (1925). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Permission of the Estate of Edward Steichen.
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Edward Steichen, Paul Robeson as the Emperor Jones, (1933). Whitney Museum of American Art, Steichen/Vanity Fair; © Condé Nast.
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Edward Steichen, Self Portrait with Photographer’s Paraphenalia,1929. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Steichen/Vanity Fair; © Condé Nast.
