Jack Mitchell

Joffrey Ballet Dancer Robert Blankshine portrait in full costume & stage makeup

1973

11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of Joffrey Ballet dancer Robert Blankshine performing, 1966. Signed by Jack Mitchell on the print verso. Co...

11 x 14" vintage silver gelatin photograph of Joffrey Ballet dancers in costume for 'The Clowns', 1968. Comes directly from the Jack Mitchell Archives with ...

Principal cast members of Gerald Arpino's Joffrey Ballet masterpiece "The Clowns" photographed in 1968. Vintage silver gelatin exhibition photograph mad...

8 x 10" vintage silver gelatin photograph of dancer, choreographer and company founder Robert Joffrey photographed in New York City in 1964. This is a p...

George Platt Lynes Photograph #7 of dancer Francisco Moncion 1949. George Platt Lynes rare original vintage 1949 gelatin silver photograph of dancer Francisco Moncion. Stamped on verso - GEORGE PLATT LYNES. Photo is 7 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches, glossy finish in excellent condition. This photograph is #7 from a collection of 12 different poses in this series taken in Platt Lynes's NYC studio in 1949 (as per the NY Public Library archives). The cloud backdrop is recognizable in other Platt Lynes photographs. Moncion was a personal friend of Platt Lynes and this photograph is from Moncion's personal photographic collection. George Platt Lynes (1907–1955), was a gregarious American portrait, dance, fashion, and male nude photographer whose career spanned the late 1920s through the early 1950s. From age eighteen, Lynes entered the cosmopolitan world of the American expatriate community in Paris when he became acquainted with the salon of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. He began photographing authors like Stein, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Colette and soon established himself as one of the premier fashion photographers in the Condé Nast stable, documenting the ballet companies of George Balanchine/Lincoln Kirstein, and pursuing a private obsession with seductive images of young male nudes rarely published in his lifetime. Platt Lynes photographs are in the collections of every major art museum and university archive including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Yale Art Museum, and the Smithsonian. Francisco Moncion (July 6, 1918 – April 1, 1995) was a charter member of the New York City Ballet. Over the course of his forty year career, choreographers George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins in the New York City Ballet created 22 major roles for Moncion including the Dark Angel in Orpheus, Death in La Valse, Prince Ivan in Firebird, and the Boy in Afternoon of a Faun. He was also a choreographer and a talented painter who exhibited alongside Miro, Picasso and Carrado Cagli. Moncion was a popular model for many famed mid-century (late 1930s, 1940s - 1950s) figure photographers including Platt Lynes, Carl van Vechten, Maurice Seymour...

George Platt Lynes Photograph #5 of dancer Francisco Moncion 1949. George Platt Lynes rare original vintage 1949 gelatin silver photograph of dancer Francisco Moncion. Stamped on verso - GEORGE PLATT LYNES. Photo is 7 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches, glossy finish in excellent condition. This photograph is Photograph #5 (similar to #4 but the head is tilted to the subject's right) from this rare collection of 12 different poses in the series taken in Platt Lynes's NYC studio in 1949. The cloud backdrop is recognizable in other Platt Lynes photographs. Moncion was a personal friend of Platt Lynes and this photograph is from Moncion personal photographic collection. George Platt Lynes (1907–1955), was a gregarious American portrait, dance, fashion, and male nude photographer whose career spanned the late 1920s through the early 1950s. From age eighteen, Lynes entered the cosmopolitan world of the American expatriate community in Paris when he became acquainted with the salon of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. He began photographing authors like Stein, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, and Colette and soon established himself as one of the premier fashion photographers in the Condé Nast stable, documenting the ballet companies of George Balanchine/Lincoln Kirstein, and pursuing a private obsession with seductive images of young male nudes rarely published in his lifetime. Platt Lynes photographs are in the collections of every major art museum and university archive including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Yale Art Museum, and the Smithsonian. Francisco Moncion (July 6, 1918 – April 1, 1995) was a charter member of the New York City Ballet. Over the course of his forty year career, choreographers George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins in the New York City Ballet created 22 major roles for Moncion including the Dark Angel in Orpheus, Death in La Valse, Prince Ivan in Firebird, and the Boy in Afternoon of a Faun. He was also a choreographer and a talented painter who exhibited alongside Miro, Picasso and Carrado Cagli. Moncion was a popular model for many famed mid-century (late 1930s, 1940s - 1950s) figure photographers including Platt Lynes, Carl van Vechten, Maurice Seymour...

Jack Mitchell mid-20th Century photograph of international ballet dancer Jan Nyuts in 1977. Nyuts was a highly acclaimed principal dancer who performed with Nederlands Dans Theatre, Maurice Bejart, San Francisco Ballet...

Jack Mitchell (September 13, 1925 – November 7, 2013) was an American photographer. He photographed American artists, dancers, film and theatre performers, musicians and writers.[1] His portraiture, lighting skill, and ability to capture dancers in what he termed "moving stills" made him one of the most important dance photographers of the 20th century. He photographed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for three decades, producing a body of work that includes over ten thousand images. He was the official photographer of the American Ballet Theatre for a decade and also photographed dancers for other top ballet companies in the US and Canada. His work appeared in major newspapers and on the cover of major magazines, including over 160 covers of Dance Magazine. Arts Magazine called him the first photographer to treat creative individuals as characters outside of their works. Smithsonian called him the benchmark by which other dance photographers assessed their own work. Early life Mitchell was born in Key West in 1925, and he was raised there and in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where his family moved in 1931.[2][3] His father worked for the railroad.[2] He became interested in photography, and when he was twelve his parents bought him a Kodak Baby Brownie for $54.[2][3][4] Career By age 15 he had met Florida's licensing standards to obtain a press pass, by age 16 he was working as a commercial photographer,[1][5] and his first published photograph was of Veronica Lake, who was visiting Florida while on a war bonds tour.[2] Mitchell was an Army photographer during World War II, working in Italy.[2] In 1946, after returning home from the army, he set up his first studio in New Smyrna Beach.[1] In 1949, when he was 24, at the invitation of Ted Shawn, he visited Jacob's Pillow Dance and became interested in dance photography, which became a specialty.[2][5] He moved his studio to New York City in 1950.[6] He was the American Ballet Theatre's official photographer.[2] Starting in the 1961 he spent decades photographing the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, producing over 10,000 images of the company;[2][5] Ailey's biographer Jennifer Dunning credited Mitchell's work for "help[ing] to sell the company early on".[5] Mitchell also photographed dancers of the Boston Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Pennsylvania Ballet, Houston Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet.[6] Mitchell shot over 160 covers for Dance Magazine;[2] his 168th cover was published in July 2003.[4] His term for what he was attempting to capture with dance photography was "moving stills."[5] He was known as a lighting expert.[2][5] Mitchell also photographed other artists, entertainers, musicians, and writers, including John Lennon and Yoko Ono just a month before Lennon was murdered.[2] Other subjects included Leonard Bernstein, David Byrne, Truman Capote, Anthony Quinn, Jack Nicholson, Patti LuPone, Keith Haring, Neil Simon, Angela Lansbury, Twyla Tharp, Ned Rorem, Leontyne Price, Alfred Hitchcock, Spalding Gray, Ann Reinking, Andy Warhol, and Natalie Wood.[2] He spent a decade photographing Gloria Swanson.[5] His work appeared in The New York Times, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Life, Newsweek, People, Rolling Stone, Time, Vanity Fair and Vogue, among others.[2][4][6] Mitchell was the subject of a 2006 documentary, My Life is Black and White, directed by Craig Highberger.[2] His books include Icons & Idols (1998), for which Edward Albee wrote the foreword,[2][4] and a book of his Alvin Ailey photography...