Albert Arthur Allen

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Albert Arthur Allen (born May 8, 1886 in Grafton , Massachusetts , † January 25, 1962 in Hayward , California ) was an American photographer and film director , who is known for nude portraits.

biography

Allen was born in New England in 1886 to a wealthy family and raised in Boston. He moved to California at the age of 21 and spent years traveling and studying art. In 1916 he opened Allen Art Studios in Oakland, California, where he devoted himself to the refinement of photographic techniques. The studio later became known as the Allen Institute of Fine and Applied Art before being destroyed by fire in 1925. The following year, Allen rebuilt the studio and named it Classic Motion Picture Corporation , a company that lasted two years before going bankrupt. He directed his only known film in 1927 with Forbidden Daughters .

A motorcycle accident in 1923 left Allen permanently disabled, but he kept working. His nudes were considered scandalous by American standards in the 1920s. He was charged with sending obscene material via the interstate mail and spent years litigating.

Little is known about Allen's later life. His first commercial exhibition didn't take place until 1979, 17 years after his death.

Allen died in Hayward, California, aged 75. He was survived by his son Friedrich.