George Hoyningen-Huene

George Hoyningen-Huene was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and became one of the great exponents of fashion photography of the 1920s and 30s. Fleeing the Russian Revolution, he moved first to London and then to Paris in 1920 where he began working as fashion draftsman, publishing his work in Harper's Bazaar and Fairchild's Magazine. By 1925 he had become the chief photographer for French Vogue and in 1935 he moved to New York and began working almost exclusively for Harper's Bazaar. He excelled at stylish studio compositions using shadows and elaborate lighting, but also created quintessentially modernistic open-air swimwear pictures. Hoyningen-Huene was also one of the first photographers to take pictures of models from above. In 1943 he published two picture books, Hellas and Egypt, and soon thereafter moved to Hollywood, where he became active in the motion picture industry, photographing celebrities and working as a color consultant on films such as A Star Is Born.
His works are held in collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mary O'Donnell Hulme