George Platt Lynes

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George Platt Lynes (born April 15, 1907 in East Orange , New Jersey , † December 6, 1955 in New York City ) was an American photographer .

Life

Lynes was born in East Orange, New Jersey. His parents were Adelaide and Joseph Russell Lynes . Lynes grew up in New Jersey; but he attended the Berkshire School in Massachusetts . In 1925 Lynes was sent to Paris. There he met Gertrude Stein , Glenway Wescott and Monroe Wheeler , who influenced him as a young artist.

He returned to the United States and intended to pursue a career as a writer. Lynes opened a bookstore in Englewood , New Jersey , in 1927 . Lynes became increasingly interested in photography. First he took photos of friends and exhibited these photos in his bookstore. Lynes went back to Europe the next year with Wescott and Wheeler and recorded his impressions on film over the next few years.

Lynes developed close friendships with a large circle of artists, including Jean Cocteau and Julien Levy . Levy exhibited photographs of Lynes in his gallery in New York City in 1932. Lynes opened his studio in New York City that same year. He quickly received jobs as a photographer from Harper's Bazaar , Town & Country and Vogue , including a cover from model Lisa Fonssagrives . In 1935, Lynes was asked to photograph the dancers and production of the American Ballet (now the New York City Ballet ).

plant

Lynes worked as a fashion photographer in the 1930s and 1940s, and clients include Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue. In the mid-1940s, Lynes became increasingly disaffected in New York City and moved to Hollywood in 1946, where he accepted the position of chief photographer for the Vogue studios. Lynes photographed Katharine Hepburn , Rosalind Russell , Gloria Swanson and Orson Welles from the film industry as well as other artists such as Aldous Huxley , Igor Stravinsky , Arnold Schönberg and Thomas Mann . Lynes became a fixture in the fashion world. While he was artistically triumphing at the time, Lynes had no financial skills in California and went bankrupt privately. Friends therefore enabled him to return to New York City in 1948. Other photographers such as Richard Avedon , Edgar de Evia and Irving Penn ousted him as a photographer in the following period in the fashion world. Lynes could not build on his artistic success again.

In May 1955, Lynes became terminally ill with lung cancer. As a result, Lynes closed his studio in New York City and traveled to Europe one last time. After returning to New York City, Lynes died on December 6, 1955.

reception

In particular, Lynes turned to the taking of homoerotic images in his private work. In the 1930s he began taking nude photos of his friends, including the young Yul Brynner . The nude photos were only known to his close circle of friends for many years. Lynes worked with Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his institute in Bloomington , Indiana . The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction currently maintains a large collection of Lynes' nude male photos.

In 1977, photographic works by George Platt Lynes were shown at documenta 6 in Kassel in the famous photography department , which presented the connection to contemporary art in the context of " 150 years of photography ".

literature

  • Crump, James. George Platt Lynes: Photographs from the Kinsey Institute , Boston: Bullfinch Press, 1993
  • Leddick, David: George Platt Lynes . New York: Bags, 2000
  • Leddick, David: Intimate Companions: a Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein and Their Circle , New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000
  • Woody, Jack: Portrait: The Photographs of George Platt Lynes , 1927–1955, Santa Fe: Twin Palms Publishers, 1994
  • Catalog for documenta 6: Volume 1: Painting, sculpture / environment, performance; Volume 2: photography, film, video; Volume 3: Hand drawings, utopian design, books; Kassel 1977 ISBN 3-920453-00-X
  • Honnef, Klaus: 150 years of photography (extended special edition of Kunstforum International: 150 years of photography III / photography at documenta 6 , volume 22); Mainz, Frankfurt am Main (two thousand and one) 1977

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography of George Platt Lynes on artnet.de
personal data
SURNAME Lynes, George Platt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH East Orange , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1955
Place of death New York City , New York