academy awards: a touch of (real) glamour

before and during the ceremonies...

shirley maclaine during rehearsals for the 1959 show...she'd been nominated for her work in some came running

...with janet leigh

kirk douglas and burt lancaster practicing their performance of "it's great not to be nominated" for the 30th awards ceremony...

see the full gallery of leonard mccombe's behind the scenes photos at life.com

***

audrey hepburn, with grace kelly back stage in 1956...

sophia loren with husband carlo ponti in 1962. photo by lawrence schiller.

natalie wood with warren beatty in 1962...

see fine pictures: marilyn monroe

the writer's almanac informed its devoted readership that today is the birthday of marilyn monroe (who never really vaults to mind when i think of my favorite actresses, but stars winningly in films that i really enjoy--how to marry a millionaire, all about eve, the seven-year itch, and especially niagara. if you've only been exposed to small clips or photographs, it would seem easy to decry her talent. can that breathy, overdrawn style really work? surprisingly, yes. can you forget, for the duration of a film that you're watching marilyn monroe? mmmm....maybe not, but maybe that's because you're thinking, hey, this marilyn monroe? she's pretty good).

twa is commemorating what would be her 84th birthday with this literary note: she was the subject of more than 300 biographies, and inspired significant works of fiction, including joyce carol oates' blonde, which was a finalist for a national book award in 2000. (the film version of blonde is in development, with naomi watts slated to play ms. monroe).

other folks are marking the occasion by unveiling this photo, which strikes me as a titanic non-event. is this photo proof of an affair? (and really--do people still need it?) is it even a great photo? i see her fabulous figure in a fabulous dress--and lots of hair and ears. yet, appraisers expect someone will pay $23K for this "very significant piece of american and celebrity history, and fine art photography." which just sounds like a whole lotta monkey business to me.

i prefer these shots, with ms. monroe looking casually glam, her soulful eyes looking bright.

all images courtesy of doctor macro.

stock images

the photographer dennis stock passed away last month at the age of 81. i heard the news about a week afterwards, and have spent some hours since touring various online galleries devoted to his work. if you have been a fan of hollywood and its stars of the 1950s and 60s, or if you're a jazz enthusiast, you may find many of these images wonderfully familiar. if you have time in the coming days, i'd encourage taking a look at a multimedia presentation, the self-assigned photographer, that mr. stock himself narrates. or if you'd rather move through the images at your own pace, here's a link to his gallery on the magnum site.

back in high school (or freshman year of college) i bought james dean revisited, and until very recently, it had been sitting on the shelf in my bedroom at my parents' house (gathering no dust, thanks to mom).

i remember my favorite images (the whole series of him taking katherine dunham's dance class, him with his bongo drums --did his bare feet make him seem more real to me? one of him, in his sailor-striped shirt, standing in his west side apartment, so tiny, like ship's quarters. and one of him, in indiana, reciting the poems of james whitcomb riley at the dinner table (i still love that one). but in essence, i really only cared about what james dean was "doing" in the photos. but i seem now to be looking at them, trying to imagine mr. stock himself--what he was thinking, doing, saying, even where he was standing. (it would probably do me good to try to figure out his settings.)

in any case, now i see the awesome tree, the reflection in the ice, the tubas and the music stands. i see geraldine page for the first time, really. and his shoes.

dennis stock/magnum. james dean, nyc. 1955.

i like some of mr. stock's california images, too.

dennis stock: corona del mar, 1968. via wink magazine blog

dennis stock/magnum via time.com

of his jazz photos, this might be my favorite...


i hope you find some that you like too.

(the new york times also has a nice short piece on their "lens" blog, which mr. stock himself followed. i love that he would take the time to offer encouragement and praise to his colleagues via the blog.)

see a fine picture: natalie wood

uncredited photo of natalie wood (i'm guessing circa 1958?) via doctor macro.

the eyes.
the short hair.
the stripes.
simple. and stunning.

see a fine picture, or three: sophia loren

these are for my sister...(happy, happy!)

publicity shot from el cid.

oh, a plain old glamour shot...

and, from the key, with william holden. very nice pajamas.

all high-quality images via doctor macro.

birthday cake!

audrey hepburn, via drmacro....

if i looked this cute while baking, i would...

street chic and hollywood glam

photo via the sartorialist, may 2007.

"on the street.....pixie, sodermalm stockholm."

posted may 11 at 8:00 am.

when i'm too too distracted or brain-numbed to read (or write), i troll design blogs and fashion sites for inspiration--not so much for fashion inspiration (while i do love looking at how the gals on street chic and the sartorialist combine colors, choose accessories, layer upon layer, that kind of unstudied chic or high style is not something i am apt [read: able] to mimic) but for pure, romantic, creative jolts.

the actual photos are glorious for light and color. i love that some are charmingly posed, others discreetly snapped...

it's lovely escapism.

i can imagine the kiss of an autumn breeze in paris...

the sartorialist via style.com september 30, 2008

or happily growing old in milan...

via the sartorialist, style.com, september 25, 2008.

i can witness "a moment"...

via the sartorialist at style.com, september 27, 2008.

i look at the backgrounds, the locations, and am reminded of my trip to france earlier this year and some of the things i loved: luxurious afternoons and evenings in outdoor cafes... blue-grey sky enriched by triumphant afternoon sun...mopeds and cool architecture... trees...windy strolls about the eiffel tower...crepes...

and sometimes from these blogs, i can uncover something new.

last week, i noticed the teaser for a post called "depression era beauties" that featured a famous george hurrell glamour shot of of jean harlow, and when i clicked through the accompanying slideshow, i fell in love with these photos of my favorite actresses:

myrna loy

carole lombard

i looked at the credits to note the names of the photographers, and found that more than a few were from the collection of john kobal. and i wondered, who is he?

it turns out he was a writer, film historian and the premier collector of hollywood film photography. if you read the bio on his foundation's website, you'll see he's basically a film superfan, who smartly amassed movie memorabilia, surely believing that others would share his obsession, and their preservation would be of eventual value to film historians and photographers.

there is a "made in hollywood" exhibition, featuring 90 vintage prints by some of the most important film photographers from the 1930s-60s that will open in may 2009, at the knoxville museum of art in knoxville, TN.

for a bit more context, check out this la times piece, first published in august 2008, when the exhibit opened in santa barbara.

exhibition "travel details" here.

and for a peek at photos from the accompanying book, "the glamour of the gods," visit newsweek's gallery.

claxography

natalie wood in nyc, photographed by william claxton, in 1961.

william claxton, whose stills of the west coast jazz scene in the 1950s are some of the most intimate and acclaimed, and whose portraits of chet baker chronicled and hastened the musician's ascent to stardom, died today at the age of 80.


i'm familiar with some of claxton's work (any half-decent poster or postcard shop in the city offers this image for sale in one form or another; who hasn't seen this one of sinatra? and this shot was known to me long before chet baker was) but i knew little about the man himself, or the breadth of his career.

and so today, i did some reading...

i learned from the nytimes' obit that he first became known for photographing his subjects, like sonny rollins, in "unorthodox" outdoor settings.

the la times' more anecdotal tribute (a too-amazing-to-imagine encounter with charlie parker) will pique the interest of fledgling photographers and jazz aficionados, and includes claxton's musings on the similarities between jazz and photography ("They're alike in their improvisation and their spontaneousness. They happen at the same moment that you're hearing something and you're seeing something, and you record it and it's frozen forever").

i was most surprised to find out that he was the art director at motor trend magazine for more than a decade. but after reading of his passion for sports cars, race cars, and motorcycles, which he shared with another of his oft-photographed subjects, steve mcqueen, it made perfect sense.

part of claxton's talent--and some might call this an art--was his ability to engender the trust of his subjects, by getting to know them, and letting them know him. and he promised not to portray them in a negative way. he was, in his own words, "dedicated to beauty" and he knew how to find it in his subjects.

these days, when photos can be and are so readily manipulated, and we, as a culture, delight in catching celebrities (and non-celebrities!) at their most compromised (and i can't say i'm immune to this phenomenon myself), and intimacy is often mistaken for being merely exposed, claxton's work takes on even more significance. his commitment to the expression of beauty, real intimacy, and honesty through photography is something that, hopefully, never gets lost.

for more on william claxton's fascinating life and work, and to hear "claxton on claxton," visit his site.