BLACK AND ABSOLUTELY RIGHT

I have realised for many years that I was born in the wrong era. I love Art Deco, adore Sinatra and absolutely worship the 1930's and 40's film studio photographers who were employed to capture the screen idols of the day, Hedy Lamarr, Greer Garson, Merle Oberon and the wonderful Marlene Dietrich.

In the days before the Internet and television the Big Screen was King and the hungry public of the day could only feed their appetite for information on their heroes through the skill of the cinematographer and the genius of cinema photographers such as C.S.Bull, better known as the man who shot Garbo, the Queen of movie stars and  the enigma that is Greta Garbo. These pictures adorned posters and the pages of a plethora of movie magazines that filled newsagents stands and fed a hungry public.

Now I don't profess to be an expert in these things but I know what I like. These portraits were taken as part of the filming process the stars had to contractually pose for these publicity pictures, rather like today. The photographers used the big studio lights which were used to light film scenes to create a warm, beautiful images that photographers today can only hope to emulate.

But these pictures were works of art, they were and still aesthetically pleasing. The images are as relevant now as they were when first published These works dictated how we perceived Movie stars. Rightly or wrongly the public formed opinions from flipping through the society magazines and making spot judgements.

There are few photographs of today's stars that people know as works of art, but the iconic images of Dietrich with her smoking cigarette, and the haunting, enigmatic photographs of the screen siren Greta Garbo are images that I can only dream of emulating. 

Photograph by C S Bull