Mid-20th Century Photography

Full-length portrait of Audrey Hepburn posed in all black against a white background for her role in "Funny Face". Funny Face is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directe...

This black and white portrait features American politician and actor Ronald Reagan who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to the presidency, h...

Second in its series, this awesome black and white capture features Marilyn Monroe in her Hollywood prime - captured in a silk dress and fur stole. A classic image of the Hollywood...

An image of James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor dancing behind the scenes of the 1950s film "Giant". Giant is a 1956 American epic Western drama film directed by George Stevens from a ...

Stunning capture of the starlet actress Audrey Hepburn posed for her role in "Roman Holiday". Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognized as both a film and f...

Circa 1955 in Hollywood, California: American jazz musician and singer Frank Sinatra leaning on a classic Ford parked next to a camping trailer. Frank Sinatra was an American singe...

Great black and white capture of the glamorous Audrey Hepburn posed leaning on a small table, dripping in jewels and beauty. British actress and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn is rega...

Circa 1952 in Los Angeles, California: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello with George Jessel in suits with old West sheriff star badges. Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo c...

Black and white candid portrait of Marilyn Monroe and Milton Berle standing on stage and smiling into the microphone. Together they stood on stage of The Banshees Welcome Editors and...

This black-and-white comedic image features Bob Hope and Marlon Brando "fighting" over an Oscar in 1954. Bob Hope was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, and ...

This captivating pinup features actress Marilyn Monroe standing poolside in a bathing suit and heels. Marilyn Monroe was one of the most popular sex symbols in the early 1950s and ...

Awesome capture of starlet Elizabeth Taylor up close behind the scenes while filming 'Giant', 1955. Giant is a 1956 American epic Western drama film, about sprawling epic covering...

Stunning black and white image of Bette Davis in a silk gown, reclining while smoking a cigarette. Bette Davis was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and...

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Widely considered to be one of the greatest films in cinema history, it is the best-known and most commercially successful adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...

This black and white portrait features American actress of film, television, and theater, Bette Davis. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history...

'Apres Ski' 1963 Slim Aarons Limited Estate Edition Print A group of women reclining on the snow in Gstaad with rugs covering their knees, 1963. Paper size 40 x 30 inches / 101 x ...

Seine Scene from the Paris In Colour Series 1956-61 By Peter Cornelius 30 x 40 inches/ 76 x 101 cm paper size Printed 2022 Archival pigment print Framing and size options availabl...

'Nice Pool' 1955 Slim Aarons Limited Edition Estate Stamped Print 1955. American writer C.Z. Guest (Mrs. F.C. Winston Guest, 1920 – 2003) and her son Alexander Michael Douglas Dudley...

Jhelum River A luxury boat trip on the Jhelum River near Srinagar, in Jammu and Kashmir, India, 1961. The boat is called the ‘HB Cutty Sark’. Slim Aarons Chromogenic. C print Pri...

To see our other World War Two pictures, scroll down to "More from this Seller" and below it click on "See all from this Seller." Charles E Brown (1896 - 1982) Wellington Bomber Sil...

Peter Orlovsky and Herbert Huncke - March 7 1960 Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway ...

Sundowners 1958 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: Two bikini-clad holidaymakers enjoy a glass of wi...

Brunch At Brennans Sunday brunch at Brennan’s restaurant, New Orleans. A Wonderful Time – Slim Aarons Slim Aarons Chromogenic C print Printed Later Slim Aarons Estate Edition P...

People walking alongside puddle at Woodstock in Bethel NY 1969 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s po...

Digging For Clams Mrs Hans Estin watches her children digging for clams at low tide on Black Beach, Massachusetts Bay, circa 1960. Slim Aarons archival pigment print Printed Later...

Palm Beach Street Cars parked on a tree-lined street in Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1953. Slim Aarons Chromogenic C print Printed Later 2024 Slim Aarons Estate Edition Produced ut...

People walking alongside puddle at Woodstock in Bethel NY - 1969 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s ...

Walking Up Cortina D'Ampezzo Skiers walk up a mountain in Cortina D’Ampezzo, a ski resort in northern Italy, 1962. Slim Aarons Chromogenic C print Printed Later 2024 Slim Aarons ...

Lawrence Alloway Museum Director Jan 28 1964 Photographer - Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agitators and social protests. Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. His mailbox was simply marked "McPhoto." An exhibit of McDarrah’s photos of artists presented by the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea was hailed by The New York Times as “a visual encyclopedia of the era’s cultural scene.” artists in their studios, (Alice Neel, Philip Guston, Stuart Davis, Robert Smithson, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline), actors (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro on the set of “Taxi Driver”), musicians (Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan) and documentary images of early happenings and performances (Yayoi Kusama, Charlotte Moorman, Al Hansen, Jim Dine, Nam June Paik). The many images of Andy Warhol include the well-known one with his Brillo boxes at the Stable Gallery in 1964. Woody Allen, Diane Arbus, W. H. Auden, Francis Bacon, Joan Baez, Louise Bourgeois, David Bowie, Jimmy Breslin, William Burroughs, John Cage, Leo Castelli, Christo, Leonard Cohen, Merce Cunningham, William de Kooning, Jim Dine, Mark di Suvero, Marcel Duchamp, Bob Dylan, Federico Fellini, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Indiana, Mick Jagger, Jasper Johns, Kusama, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Nam June Paik, Elvis Presley, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Lou Reed, James Rosenquist, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha, Robert Smithson, Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, and others. McDarrah’s prints have been collected in depth by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington. His work is in numerous public and private collections. Lawrence Reginald Alloway was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an influential writer and curator in the US. He first used the term "mass popular art" in the mid-1950s and used the term "Pop Art" in the 1960s to indicate that art has a basis in the popular culture of its day and takes from it a faith in the power of images. Alloway started writing reviews for the British periodical ArtReview, then styled Art News and Review in 1949 and for the American periodical Art News in 1953. In Nine Abstract Artists (1954) he promoted the Constructivist artists that emerged in Britain after the Second World War: Robert Adams, Terry Frost, Adrian Heath, Anthony Hill, Roger Hilton, Kenneth Martin, Mary Martin, Victor Pasmore, and William Scott. In 1961, through his contacts with the American painter Barnett Newman, Alloway was offered a lecturer position at Bennington College in Vermont. He and his wife, the realist painter Sylvia Sleigh...

Jagger, Wyman, Watts, Richards & Brian Jones the 'other' British rock band making their mark on the scene in the mid-'60s. Here are the Rolling Stones in their early years. Depicted ...

Paul Georges poses with self portrait with wife - January 6th 1967 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Paul Georges with Painting Jan 6, 1967 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Over a 50-ye...

Edward Steichen, John Durniak, Monroe Wheeler and Edward D. Museum of modern art on Feb 10, 1962 Photographer Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agitators and social protests. Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. His mailbox was simply marked "McPhoto." An exhibit of McDarrah’s photos of artists presented by the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea was hailed by The New York Times as “a visual encyclopedia of the era’s cultural scene.” artists in their studios, (Alice Neel, Philip Guston, Stuart Davis, Robert Smithson, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline), actors (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro on the set of “Taxi Driver”), musicians (Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan) and documentary images of early happenings and performances (Yayoi Kusama, Charlotte Moorman, Al Hansen, Jim Dine, Nam June Paik). The many images of Andy Warhol include the well-known one with his Brillo boxes at the Stable Gallery in 1964. Woody Allen, Diane Arbus, W. H. Auden, Francis Bacon, Joan Baez, Louise Bourgeois, David Bowie, Jimmy Breslin, William Burroughs, John Cage, Leo Castelli, Christo, Leonard Cohen, Merce Cunningham, William de Kooning, Jim Dine, Mark di Suvero, Marcel Duchamp, Bob Dylan, Federico Fellini, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Indiana, Mick Jagger, Jasper Johns, Kusama, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Nam June Paik, Elvis Presley, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Lou Reed, James Rosenquist, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha, Robert Smithson, Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, and others. McDarrah’s prints have been collected in depth by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington. His work is in numerous public and private collections. Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. Steichen's were the photographs that most frequently appeared in Alfred Stieglitz's groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its publication from 1903 to 1917. Together Stieglitz and Steichen opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which eventually became known as '291', after its address. Steichen laid claim to his photos of gowns for the magazine Art et Décoration in 1911 being the first modern fashion photographs ever published. From 1923 to 1938, Steichen was a photographer for the Condé Nast magazines Vogue and Vanity Fair while also working for many advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson. During these years, Steichen was regarded as the best known and highest paid photographer in the world. In 1944, he directed the war documentary The Fighting Lady, which won the 1945 Academy Award for Best Documentary. From 1947 to 1961, Steichen served as Director of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art. While at MoMA, he curated and assembled exhibits including The Family of Man, which was seen by nine million people. In 1904, Steichen began experimenting with color photography. He was one of the earliest in the United States to use the Autochrome Lumière process. In 1905, Stieglitz and Steichen created the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession, which eventually became known as 291 after its address. It presented some of the first American exhibitions of Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brâncuși. He worked with Robert Frank even before his The Americans was published, exhibited the early work of Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, and purchased two Rauschenberg prints...

Lawrence Lipton May 17 1965 photographer Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmod...

Top Up? 1958 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: 1958: Swimsuited revellers enjoy a glass of wine out...

Halftone photographic print on gloss photographic paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition; never framed or matted. Notes: From the folio, Alfred Stieglitz Memorial Portfolio 1864-1946, 1947. Published by Twice a Year Press, New York; printed by Lakeside Press, Chicago, 1947. Excepted from the folio, edition limited to fifteen-hundred copies. INTRODUCTORY NOTE-AMERICA WITHOUT ALFRED STIEGLITZ, Twice during his life, and now again after his death, the compelling and magnetic personality of Alfred Stieglitz has evoked spontaneous group tribute. In America and Alfred Stieglitz, as in the earlier and memorable No. 47 of Camera Work, the elusive question: What is the meaning of Stieglitz? was posed. In both volumes—as in so much other writing about him-it was answered in as many ways as there were artists, writers, composers-individuals in all fields of endeavor attempting to "explain" him. Indeed, the meaning and influence of Stieglitz as artist, patron, teacher, inspirer, friend, critic, were so vastly complex, it may be that no single estimate of him could at any point fully cover all facets of his character. Thus it may be both inevitable and particularly fitting that a memorial volume to him should also be in the form of a group tribute the more so since he himself so firmly believed that no matter how diligently one attempts to evaluate the meaning of any individual or work of art (or life itself for that matter) there can never be one single interpretation, one single estimate that can be viewed as absolute or final. That tribute should be paid by a group is fitting for still another reason, for although Stieglitz was ostensibly a great individualist, no one believed more firmly than did he in the idea that individuals dedicated to the same ends should come together and work together for a common purpose each leaving the other free to say his say without interference. In reading over the tributes now published in this portfolio as they have been received, I have felt what I always feel about any writing concerning Stieglitz that is born of deep feeling: That those who are moved to write about him invariably do so more from a desire to share a sense of wonder about him, than actually to "explain" his meaning or importance. This again is as it should be, for Stieglitz's entire life was dedicated to the sense of wonder-his own, as well as that of others. There were those who scoffed at the title "America and Alfred Stieglitz" when the volume bearing that name first appeared (the inference having been that those responsible for it overestimated Stinglitz's importance). The question now is-What of America without Alfred Stieglitz? What has gone out of our lives now that Stieglitz is no longer here? For certainly we have suffered a great and abiding loss in his death. And although America is infinitely richer for his having lived, it is not quite the same now that he is gone. Certainly there is no one in this country now standing up for the arts in precisely the manner in which Stieglitz stood up for them. There is no one now fighting as he fought to keep art from being regarded as a commodity. There is no gallery in America at this moment whose spirit and approach are even remotely related to the spirit of "291," the Intimate Gallery, An American Place. Wherever Stieglitz functioned there was a sacred feeling about the artist, about the work of art, about the cleanliness of walls, about those seeking art. There is now no one photographing as he photographed; no one speaking as he spoke. America without Alfred Stieglitz is indeed changed subtly but incontrovertibly changed. This portfolio is published to re-evoke the tradition in which he lived. It is issued as a labor of love, in tribute to a great and lovable man, in deep sadness that he is no longer alive and in dedication to the principles for which he stood, and the spirit in which he worked. The tributes received have been printed without editing, except for corrections of important errors of fact. They express the views of their authors; they are inevitably as much portraits of their authors as of their subject. I have included excerpts from a few letters received after Stieglitz's death, which, although not written for publication, seem somehow to belong; various pieces written about Stieglitz some time ago by those who would surely have contributed related tributes now, had they not died within recent years; several articles meant for this portfolio but already published elsewhere; a cross-section of obituaries and memorial pieces from leading newspapers and journals; a few tributes received after the portfolio was planned, at the request of their authors. As for the decision to include reproductions of Stieglitz's photographs: As with all attempts to reproduce his work, I have felt a certain degree of hesitation. Although he disliked very much having his work reproduced, he would, in general, permit reproductions to be published when requested. I have attempted to procure the best approximation of his work that could be made in America at this time. To those who believe it unfitting to reproduce Stieglitz's work at all, or that one should wait to do so until conditions are perfect, I can only state this: Stieglitz was indeed a great perfectionist, but he spoke out vigorously against making such a fetish of perfectionism that one might finally do nothing whatsoever in behalf of the very things about which one claims to care the most. Years ago he wrote to someone who asked to reproduce his work: "My photographs do not lend themselves to reproduction. The very qualities that give them their life would be completely lost in reproduction. The quality of touch in its deepest living sense is inherent in my photographs. When that sense of touch is lost, the heartbeat of the photograph is extinct. In the reproduction it would become extinct dead. My interest is in the living. That is why cannot give permission to reproduce my photographs." He wrote this, despite giving permission to reproduce his work many times both before and after the statement was written. At another time he wrote: "As for reproductions, I feel that if the spirit of the original is lost, nothing is preserved. My work might be reproduced if properly interpreted, that is, the spirit might be preserved. Of course, some of the things can't possibly be reproduced for obvious reasons. Above all, the reproductions must have a clean feeling— an absolute integrity of their own." Aware of these feelings and despite the paradox that he so often granted permission to reproduce his work in spite of them—wish to make it clear that the reproductions herewith included are in no sense offered as substitutes for Stieglitz originals. They are published rather as a reminder of the originals themselves. In concentrating so intently upon the fostering of other artists, Stieglitz paid far too little attention to seeing that his own work might be better known to the general public. It is high time that this situation was remedied. To print a mere twenty reproductions, in the light of the enormous scope of Stieglitz's work, is also not to suggest that this portfolio represents a true "cross-section" of his work. All that could be done under the present circumstances was to choose a few representative prints, from various periods, that might possibly be reproduced without losing too much of the form of the originals, and thereby show at least the general direction in which Stieglitz's work evolved even though obviously only in a cursory-and therefore perhaps misleading-fashion. But if the inclusion of these few reproductions should do nothing more than lead those who see them to the originals, their publication may be justified. In the final analysis, in paying tribute to Stieglitz one cannot help but wish-first and foremost-to enable his contribution as an artist to speak for itself. For his contribution as photographer will live on—as symbol and portrait of all that he stood for, envisioned, created, expressed-quite independently of whatever else he fostered and inspired. And that contribution is one of the greatest in the world of art in our time. —Dorothy Norman...

The Rolling Stones "Mick Feeding Goat" - Outtake from the famous photo shoot of The Rolling Stones for their Beggars Banquet album at Sarum Chase mansion, Hampstead, London, 1968, si...

Carlton Hotel 1958 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: The entrance to the Carlton Hotel, Cannes, Fra...

Great black and white capture of members of Led Zeppelin practicing on their instruments in a living room. Led Zeppelin was an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group...

Marilyn Monroe Vintage press photo. Photographer Eve Arnold for Magnum Photos. 1962 printed later. (I believe in the early 80's) Eve Arnold, OBE...

This dramatic black and white portrait features Joan Crawford armed with an axe for her role in "Strait-Jacket". Strait-Jacket is a 1964 American horror-thriller film starring Joan Crawford and Diane Baker in a macabre mother and daughter tale about a series of axe-murders. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film was directed and produced by William Castle...

Lord Snowdon Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agi...

A formal dinner organised by Dubonnet on the French Riviera, 1952. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Slim Aarons Estate Edition, Certificate of Authenticity include...

Paul Georges with Painting Jan 6, 1967 Photographer is Fred McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, i...

Vintage Magnum press photo. Shot in the 60's by Inge Morath, printed in the 80's. Arthur Miller peers out from Saul Steinberg mask. (with Marilyn Mon...

Darryl Zanuck In Cannes 1958 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: 1957: Darryl Francis Zanuck (1902 - ...

Second in its series, this awesome black and white capture features Marilyn Monroe in her Hollywood prime - captured in a silk dress and fur stole. Classic image of the Hollywood l...

This candid black and white capture features Audrey Hepburn, star of "Sabrina", candid on the set, posed against a large studio light. Film and fashion icon Audrey Hepburn was a Bri...

Klosters 1963 C-Print Estate signature stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. Skiers pass by the Hotel Chesa Grischuna in Klos...

The Carlton Hotel in Cannes 1955 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: A Cadillac with Florida plates p...

'Soft Helmets' V&A Portfolio Limited Edition print Pattie Boyd and Celia Hammond modelling feathered capsule hats, John French (1907-66), London, 1960s © Victoria and Albert M...

Incredible 1969 photograph of one of the world's greatest rock bands, Led Zeppelin. This photograph was taken by Jay Thompson during a memorable photoshoot at LA's Chateau Marmont. G...

Harriet De Rosiere in Cannes 1958 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: Viscountess Harriet de Rosiere ...

This color action shot features one of the most influential figures in jazz, trumpeter Louis Amrstrong. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different er...

This awesome black and white capture features Anna Wong sitting, posed against a large shadow of a dragon. Anna Wong was an American actress, considered to be the first Toisonese (T...

This beautiful vintage portrait features Rita Hayworth posed in a Hawaiian outfit, posed amongst palm trees.Rita Hayworth was an American actress and dancer. She achieved fame during...

Harriet De Rosiere in Cannes 1958 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: Viscountess Harriet de Rosiere ...

This black and white portrait features actress Elizabeth Taylor in full costume, posed elegantly in window light. Elizabeth Taylor was a British-American actress, businesswoman, and...

Harriet de Rosiere at Mougins 1957 C print Estate stamped and hand numbered edition of 150 with certificate of authenticity from the estate. CAPTION: Viscountess Harriet de Rosiere...