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Over the years, consumers have come to expect a certain quality when it comes to magazine covers and editorial prints. Whether it's in the pages of Vogue or Vanity Fair, people expect to see subjects lit by soft light against stark grey backdrops or gorgeous mansions. Creating photographs like these becomes a challenge when the photographer has to jump from portraiture to fashion to fine art. One photographer who makes the whole business look easy is Patrick Demarchalier.


Patrick Demarchalier is one of the fashion industry's foremost photographers. He began taking photographs at the age of 17 when he received a Kodak camera from his step father. He later moved to Paris and became a photographer's assistant, learning the tricks of the trade while on the set of magazine photo shoots. Demarchalier also worked in a photography lab, developing his negatives himself. He eventually climbed his way into becoming an assistant for a French Vogue magazine photographer before becoming one himself.

Demarchalier's first photographs for French Vogue caught the attention of one Condé Naste editor who brought him to New York in the early 1970s. He first worked on Glamour Magazine before being tasked to work on Vogue USA. Despite not knowing a word of English at that time, he soon became one of the most sought-after photographers in the fashion industry


Demarchalier's early years in New York helped him develop as a photographer as he was able to work with other notable photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson. He also got to work with the most famous fashion designers and supermodels of the 1970s. It was around this time the modern look and style of the fashion magazine were established, and Demarchalier played a big role in this format.

In 1993, Demarchilier shot Janet Jackson naked from the waist up save for a pair of hands covering her breasts. The photograph was used for a Rolling Stone magazine cover, and became one of Jackson's album covers. In 2009, the photographer appeared in the fashion documentary "The September Issue", a behind the scenes look into one of the fashion industry's most anticipated monthly magazine. In 2010, Demarchalier was one of the featured photographers in America's Next Top Model (Cycle 15).


Over the years, Demarchalier has jumped from one project to the next, but his heart remains with fashion. While his photographs might share the same look, he says that it's because of the lack of innovation in the fashion industry. He says, "Things change. Then, after a while, they come back. So things get longer and longer and longer. And then they get shorter and shorter and shorter. And at the fashion shows, people say, 'Ah! Fantastique!' - but things were like that 10 years ago; they go around. Only amazing designers think of the truly new."

Still, his photography has helped establish the classic look of the fashion magazine industry. In an industry that's bursting with new and talented photographers, fashion designers, set designers, make-up artists, and models, it's amazing how Demarchalier continues to stay relevant and innovative.


For more images by Patrick Demarchalier's images of Vanity Fair, Vogue and W nagazine, check out his website here. For printed editions, there are Patrick Demarchelier, Dior Couture and Patrick Demarchelier: Forms.

In its heyday, the Eastman Kodak company dominated the North American photography so much that its signature phrase "Kodak Moment" became a popular tagline for any moment worth photographing. Sadly, with Kodak filing for bankruptcy and planning to sell of many of its divisions, those days are long gone. However, thanks to the company's passion for visual excellence, many of the best Kodak Moments are preserved in large format images. In the middle of the last century, Kodak presented its Kodak Colorama, touted as the biggest photographs of its generation and certainly some of the best Kodak Moments of all time.


The Kodak Colorama were a collection of 18 feet high by 60 feet long color photographs that were displayed in the interior of Grand Central Station from the 1950s to the 1980s. The long strips of vivid color images depicted scenes of Americana reminiscent of Norman Rockwell's paintings, from Thanksgiving dinners to poolside parties to cowboys in the Grand Tetons. In the span of 40 years, over 500 Coloramas were displayed in the station's balconies.

The Colorama's story began in 1950 when Kodak was invited to advertise their products in Grand Central's east balcony. Because of the size of the area presented to them, the company's executives though it would be best to go with really large images covering the span of the balcony. The extreme size of these Coloramas demanded new photographic and processing techniques: a custom-built enlarger was made for the project, and the first few Coloramas required 450 feet of film. The ambient light was also a problem; because of the low light levels inside the station, the images were printed on special transparencies which were then illuminated from behind, not unlike the effect from stained-glass windows in churches and cathedrals.


The first few Coloramas centered around the theme of rebirth and rebuilding. The US had emerged from World War II only a few years before, and so Kodak photographers played on the themes of the American family and the golden age of the 1950s. While the scenes were majestically staged, they also had to convey a photographic message, specifically that ordinary people with small Kodak cameras could take the same shot.  Thus, the familiar Americana and family theme remained a popular one all throughout the decades.

 Because of the Colorama's unusual format, special cameras were used to make the images. The first photographs were made with old 8 x 10 large format cameras which were bulky and cumbersome to carry and operate. In later Coloramas, photographers had to work around the large format cameras they had with them, whether it was a scene in an ordinary living room, or underwater in the seas of St. Croix. It was only in 1986 when technology had improved enough that a Colorama was made from an ordinary 35mm camera.


As the decades came and went, subjects outside of the Americana theme were used and locations around the world (especially around famous tourist spots) became a popular Colorama theme. As the 1980s rolled in, technological advancements and consumer familiarity meant that the once majestic Coloramas became less and less impressive, and ordinary people thought of them as overwrought and even gaudy. The last Colorama was taken down in 1990.

While the primary intent of the Coloramas was to advertise Kodak's film and cameras, they became a visual record of what most people thought of as the ideal life worth photographing. Indeed, looking back at these images, it becomes clear that Kodak wasn't just selling cameras, but touting its vision of the American Dream.

For the past few months, the New York Transit Museum has been exhibiting the a selection of Colorama images as part of George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film's larger international exhibition. The images are currently on display until November 1st.


There's a lot more images and information on the Kodak Colorama e-magazine. This 30-minute documentary describes the entire era quite well. There's more old-school Kodak moments in this feature on Kodachrome. The large-format collection is published in Colorama: The World's Largest Photographs with more Kodak color goodness in Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43 and Americans in Kodachrome 1945-1965.

While W. Eugene Smith was busy capturing the unflinching honesty of people, another photographer was busy photographing the compelling beauty in people. Irving Penn moved seamlessly from portraiture to fashion and back again, producing some of the most striking portraits of his time and proving that he was undoubtedly the 20th century's master of portraiture.


Such is the talent of Irving Penn that he has already been featured on this blog for his masterful portraiture series, "Small Trades". Fortunately, Penn's photographs are too good to be confined to only one post, so this one will feature more of the great master's works.

Penn's eye for strong contrasts and leading lines may have been rooted in his early foundation in design; as a young man, Penn studied design at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art and later joined classes taught by the great design icon Alexey Brodvitch. His first foray into commercial work was as an artist and designer for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. It was only after some five years in the early 1940s that Penn seriously delved into the world of photography.


After his volunteer work as an ambulance driver in Italy during World War II, Penn returned to Vogue as a staff photographer. His early work as a designer flowed easily to his photography work where models were dressed in simple pieces, lit with a single source of light and photographed against a stark background. At a time when emerging photographers like Richard Avedon were experimenting with outdoor photo shoots and action shots ,Penn somehow successfully maintained the restrained style of earlier photographers like Edward Steichen.

In 1948, Penn took the idea of restraint to a whole new level with his "Corner Portraits" where subjects would pose in the corner of two intersecting walls. The awkward, wedged and uncomfortable setting brought about a different look on some familiar faces.

Going the other direction in terms of unfamiliar faces, Penn began a landmark project beginning in 1950 photographing small trade workers off the streets of Paris. The project, aptly titled "Small Trades", showcased the unsung workers of the city like carpenters and peanut vendors, akin to Lewis Hine's own project documenting manual workers some 30 years earlier.


At this point, Penn experimented with tight, close-up styles of portraiture (evident in his photographs of Truman Capote and Pablo Picasso below). These images would be the exception to his usual style of full-body portraits. His signature style returned in the 1960s when he took pictures of early hippies and the Hell's Angels which were becoming popular at that time.

Penn began to exhibit and publish more of his images beginning in the 1980s, but he continued to work for different magazines, most notably Vogue, up to his death in 2009. His images bridged the divide between the different generations in Hollywood, showing that beauty was in everyone, regardless of color or age.


The Irving Penn Foundation has a list of publications featuring the works of this 20th century portrait master, but has very few images of the photographer. Do a Google search instead. Don't forget the previous blog entry on Irving Penn's Small Trades. For published versions, try Irving Penn: Small Trades, Irving Penn: A Career in Photography and Irving Penn: Platinum Prints.

The new year is a good occasion to make promises and look towards better times ahead. It's an even a better occasion to look back at the past and see how much you've accomplished since then. Photographer Jason Lee won't have a problem with the latter as he's recorded almost every moment of his two proudest achievements, his two daughters Kristin and Kayla, through an ingenious photoblog, the tale of these two happy sisters.



Jason Lee is a professional wedding photographer but he has become more famous because of his photoblog detailing the accomplishments of his his young daughters. While other photographers (and dads and moms in general) are content with posting each and every picture of their kids, Lee took it up a notch and created fantastical worlds for his two daughters through the lens of his camera.

Thus, you might find Kristin and Kayla dressed up in Angry Birds costumes and re-enacting  their favorite level one day, and then see them playing the role of Little Red Riding Hood chasing away the Big Bad Wolf another day.



Lee began his photoblog in 2006 when his youngest daughter was still a baby. He mentions that he initially intended the blog as a way to capture the lives of his daughters for the benefit of his mother who couldn't visit them often. Five years later, his short blog has grown into an inspirational website featuring the lives of two amazing young ladies.


Not all photographs are as wacky and quirky as these few selected images. Sometimes, there are pictures taken on Kristin and Kayla's first day of school or dance class, or just ordinary days when Lee's girls are just having fun and enjoying life.

While his crazy ideas are fun to look at (and probably a hundred times more fun to create in the first place), even the reflective moments when the young ones are all quiet can have an equally powerful impact.


There are more wonderful tales of these two sisters over at their blog, Kristin and Kayla. Jason Lee's professional website is here.

How many men does it take to create the perfect portrait? This blog has on occasion featured group portraits, but nothing on this magnitude. Assembling a cast of several officers and enlisted men, Arthur Mole and John Thomas used their knowledge of perspective and photography in order to create a series of images that would inspire America. Almost a hundred years from that time, their pictures of a thousand men are worth more than tenfold in words.


You may have already seen some of the images in this post when they were circulated in e-mails not too long ago. The image, usually of the Statue of Liberty above, would have some accompanying text similar to "INCREDIBLE HUMAN STATUE OF LIBERTY MADE OF 18,000 SOLDIERS!!!", or something to that effect. The text may sound hyperbolic, but it is in fact true.

The images were made by Arthur S. Mole with the help of John D. Thomas around 1918. Their names are largely forgotten, but their work continues to astound to this day. Mole and Thomas' both worked as commercial photographers based in Chicago. Their claim to fame was their "living photographs", massive images of American patriotic symbols all composed of people, usually soldiers.


The images all work so well because they give the correct perspective in relation to the camera, giving the illusion that they are indeed what they portray to be. In order for the camera to capture all of the men, the photographers would perch atop an 80-foot tower, usually specially made for the occasion as they traveled from one military camp to another all over the US in order to get a different image from each group of men.

The trick to getting the right number of men in the right area was simple, yet ingenious: Mole would draw the pattern he needed over the camera lens. Thus, all he needed to do was direct the men into their proper place on the day of the shoot.

The order and organization in these images are truly remarkable, but you only get a true sense of the magnitude of these group photographs when you find out about the number of men that took to create each shot. For example, in the image of the Statue of Liberty, the base of the statue is comprised of only 17 men, but the torch is made up of 12,000. In fact, the torch alone took more than half of the 18,000 needed to create this image. That detail by itself makes the entire effort truly laudable.


Mole and Thomas deliberately chose symbols associated with the US identity as a means of boosting the nation's morale during the 1st World War. Thus, the likenesses of the bald eagle, the US Shield, the Statue of Liberty, and even President Woodrow Wilson (with his permission and blessing) were used for the occasion.

The images were supposed to help promote the sale of war bonds, however they were never used for that purpose. It may seem like a waste that they weren't used for their original intent, but Mole and Thomas would be proud to know that their images are still being circulated in the digital age and continue to inspire a whole new generation a hundred years from when they were first created.


If you want to see more of Arthur Mole and John Thomas' pictures worth a thousand men, check out the Carl Hammer Gallery. The US Library Congress also has copies of different group photographs over here. You can also find more information over at the Iowa National Guard website and over at Snopes.com.