Publisher's Description
RUTH HARRIET LOUISE
AND HOLLYWOOD
GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Robert Dance and Bruce Robertson
When Ruth Harriet Louise joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the
studio with 'more stars than there are in heaven,' she was
twenty-two years old and the only woman working as a portrait
photographer for the Hollywood studios. In a career that lasted
from 1925 until I930, Louise (born Ruth Goldstein) photographed all the stars, contract players, and many of the hopefuls who passed through the studio's front gates, including
Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Marion
Davies, and Norma Shearer. This book, which coincides with a
major traveling retrospective of Louise's work organized by the
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, is the first collection of her
exquisite photographs. Containing over one hundred breathtaking images, it attests to the talent and vision of a surprisingly unknown photographer who formed the images and helped
create the popularity of some of our most enduring stars.
Louise shot about one hundred thousand negatives that
distilled the glamour, drama, and excitement of MGM's feature
productions. Louise's original photographs were circulated to
millions of moviegoers, magazine and newspaper readers, and
fans. The movies and publicity machine that these photographs supported shaped the basic notions of stardom, glamour, and fashion in the 1920s and still affect our ideas today.
Robert Dance and Bruce Robertson re-create the entire
process-from the moment a performer sat in front of Louise's
camera to the point at which a fan pasted a star's picture into a
scrapbook. They provide insight into Louise's work habits in the
studio and describe the personal dynamics between Louise and
the actors she photographed. They include a condensed account
of the methods of other photographers, a sharp analysis of fan
culture in the period, and superb readings of Louise's photographs. With its combination of well-known and rare images, all
magnificently reproduced, this book is a fitting tribute to one of
the most gifted and underappreciated glamour photographers
of Hollywood's golden period.
Robert Dance is a private art dealer in New York, specializing in Old
Master paintings and drawings. Bruce Robertson is Professor of the
History of Art and Architecture at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, and most recently the principal author ofTwentieth-Century
American Art: The Ebsworth Collection (2000).
Exhibition Dates:
Terra Museum of American Art,
Chicago, Illinois, March-May 2002
Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art,
Wichita, Kansas, November 1, 2002-
January 31, 2003
Museum of American Art,
Giverny, France, June-August 2003
Santa Barbara Museum of Art,
Santa Barbara, California,
July 27- October 10, 2002