Born in 1879 in Luxembourg, Edward Steichen came with his family to the United States in 1881 and started in photography at age 16, when the medium itself was still young. In 1900, a critic reviewing some of his portraits wrote admiringly that Steichen "is not satisfied showing us how a person looks, but how he thinks a person should look."
"Steichen was a perfectionist,"
says Howard Schatz, a fashion photographer whose portraits of actors appear in
Vanity Fair. "His precise eye for lighting and design makes his pictures from the '20s and '30s, though clearly of their time, still much admired by fashion photographers today."
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| Model Dinarzade in a Dress by Poiret, 1924 |
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| Actress Clara Bow for Vanity Fair, 1928 |
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| Actress Gloria Swanson, 1924 |
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| Dancers Leonore Hughes and Maurice Mouvet, 1924 |
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| Actress Pola Negri, 1925 |
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| Tamaris with a large Art Deco scarf, 1925 |
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| Model wearing a black tulle headdress by Suzanne Talbot and a brocade coat with black fox collar, 1925 |
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| Actor Gary Cooper, 1930 |
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| Marion Morehouse and unidentified model wearing dresses by Vionnet, 1930 |
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| Model Dorothy Smart wearing a black velvet hat by Madame Agnès, 1926 |
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| Marlene Dietrich, 1934 |
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| Greta Garbo, 1929 |
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| Actress Joan Crawford in a dress by Schiaparelli, 1932 |
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| White (center Gwili André), 1935 |
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| On George Baher’s yacht. June Cox wearing unidentified fashion; E. Vogt wearing fashion by Chanel and a hat by Reboux; Lee Miller wearing a dress by Mae and Hattie Green and a scarf by Chanel; Hanna-Lee Sherman wearing unidentified fashion, 1928. |
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| Actress Mary Heberden, 1935 |
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| Charlie Chaplin, 1934 |
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| Lee Miller, 1928 |
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| Actress Claire Luce, 1928 |
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