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George Hoyningen-Huene

 
Art Encyclopedia: George Hoyningen-Huene

(b St Petersburg, 4 Sept 1900; d Los Angeles, CA, 13 Sept 1968). American photographer of Russian birth, active also in France. He came to England during the Russian Revolution of 1917 and moved to Paris in 1921. He studied painting with Andr? Lhote, attempted fashion drawing influenced by his teacher's Cubism and collaborated with Man Ray on a fashion portfolio. After designing fashion backgrounds he began to photograph in 1925 and became chief photographer for Vogue

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Photography Encyclopedia: George Hoyningen-Huene
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Hoyningen-Huene, George (1900-68), Russian-born American fashion photographer. From an aristocratic background, he settled in Paris in 1920 and worked as a draughtsman in his sister's fashion company, YTER, then for Harper's Bazaar. He also studied painting with André Lhote and made contacts in the film industry and the avant-garde; in 1924 he worked with Man Ray on a fashion portfolio. In 1925 he was hired as an illustrator by French Vogue, but moved into photography and headed the magazine's photographic studio 1926-9. He also began a lifelong friendship with Horst Bormann (Horst). In 1929 he joined American Vogue, but after breaking with Condé Nast moved to Harper's (1935-45). After the Second World War he abandoned fashion photography for teaching. He also made short films and collaborated with the director Georg Cukor.

Hoyningen-Huene was one of the most influential fashion photographers of his time. Like Horst and another friend, Herbert List, with whom he visited Greece in 1937, he often used surrealistically inflected Hellenic motifs. He excelled at stylish studio compositions using shadows and elaborate lighting, but also created quintessentially modernistic open-air swimwear pictures. Overall, the taste, economy, restraint, and fine calculation of effects in his best work reveal the artist born and trained.

— Robin Lenman

Bibliography

  • Ewing, W. A., The Photographic Art of Hoyningen-Huene (1986)
Wikipedia: George Hoyningen-Huene
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Baron George Hoyningen-Huene (1900 - 1968) was a seminal fashion photographer of the 1920s and 1930s. He was born in Russia to Baltic German and American parents and spent his working life in France, England and the United States.[citation needed]

Photograph of Horst taken by George Hoyningen-Huene in 1931.

Contents

Europe

Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on September 4, 1900, Hoyningen-Huene was the only son of Baron Barthold Theodor Hermann (Theodorevitch) von Hoyningen-Huene (1859-1942), a Baltic nobleman, military officer and lord of Navesti manor (near Võhma), and his wife, Emily Anne "Nan" Lothrop (1860-1927), a daughter of George Van Ness Lothrop, an American minister to Russia. (The couple was married in Detroit, Michigan, in 1888.) He had two sisters. Helen (died 1976) became a fashion designer in France and the United States, using the name Helen de Huene. Elizabeth (1891-1973), also known as Betty, also became a fashion designer (using the name Mme. Yteb in the 1920s and 1930s) and married, first, Baron Wrangel, and, second, Lt. Col. Charles Norman Buzzard, a British Army officer.

During the Russian Revolution, the Hoyningen-Huenes fled to first London, and later Paris. By 1925 George had already worked his way up to chief of photography of the French Vogue. In 1931 he met Horst, the future photographer, who became his lover and frequent model[citation needed] and traveled to England with him that winter. While there, they visited photographer Cecil Beaton, who was working for the British edition of Vogue. In 1931, Horst began his association with Vogue, publishing his first photograph in the French edition of Vogue in November of that year.

United States

In 1935 Hoyningen-Huene moved to New York City where he did most of his work for Harper's Bazaar. He published two art books on Greece and Egypt before relocating to Hollywood, where he earned his wedge by shooting glamorous portraits for the film industry.

Hoyningen-Huene worked before anything resembling contemporary flash photography was known.[neutrality disputed] Working in huge studios and with whatever lighting worked best. There is something about the texture of his black and whites that one seldom finds in contemporary work. Beyond fashion, he was a master portraitist as well from Hollywood stars to other celebrities.[original research?]

He also worked in Hollywood in various capacities in the film industry, working closely with George Cukor, notably as special visual and color consultant for the 1954 Judy Garland movie A Star Is Born. He served a similar role for the 1957 film Les Girls, which starred Kay Kendall and Mitzi Gaynor, the Sophia Loren film Heller in Pink Tights and The Chapman Report.

In 1952 his cousin Baron Ernst Lyssardt von Hoyningen-Huene who he adopted married Sir Harry Oakes the gold mining tycoon's daughter Nancy Oakes. That union lasted until 1956 and produced one son Baron Alexander von Hoyningen-Huene. Baron Alexander von Hoyningen-Huene is also known as Sasha.

He died at 68 years of age in Los Angeles.[citation needed]

Publications

  • Eye for Elegance - George Hoyningen-Huene (exhibition catalogue) International Center of Photography and Congreve Publishing Company, 1980.
  • The Photographic Art of Hoyningen-Huene by William Ewing, George Hoyningen-Huene. Thames & Hudson, 1998.

Filmography

Miscellaneous crew - filmography (1960s) (1950s)

  • The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954) color consultant
  • A Star Is Born (1954) special color design advisor
  • Bhowani Junction (1956) color consultant
  • Les Girls (1957) color coordinator
  • It Started in Naples (1960) title designer
  • Heller in Pink Tights (1960) color coordinator and technical advisor
  • Let's Make Love (1960) color coordinator

... also known as The Billionaire ... also known as The Millionaire

... also known as Olympia (Italy)

  • The Chapman Report (1962) color consultant - designer, title designer
  • A New Kind of Love (1963) color coordinator - designer

Costume designer - filmography

  • A Breath of Scandal (1960)

... also known as Olympia (Italy)

External links


 
 
Learn More
Herbert List (photography)
Horst (art)
Horst P. Horst (photography)

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Art Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.  Read more
Photography Encyclopedia. The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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