INTERIOR PORTRAITURE

As so often is the case, what I chose to write about has to do with whatever is coming my way that week or that day. It just so happens that this week I had to submit a black and white portrait for an upcoming publication giving me pause to think about the enigmatic image in photography.

Whenever I look at a portrait, I cannot help but focus on not only the subject of the photograph, but also the environment surrounding the person being photographed. The camera lens and the photographer behind it captures not only the personality but simultaneously documents the space they inhabit. The era, their stylistic sensibilities and the captivating gaze of that subject within their individual interior bleeds through. So many celebrated photographers gave us insight into those extravagant personas in their sumptuous spaces- Cecil Beaton, Horst, Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier- Bresson – giving us a glimpse of a lifestyle and immortalizing a moment caught in time.


Photograph by Harold Acton - Cafe' Society


Pauline Potter - Cafe' Society


Harrison Williams - Cafe' Society


Millicent Rogers - Cafe' Society


Marie-Laure Noailles - Cafe' Society


Marie-Laure Noailles - Cafe' Society


Lord Berners - Cafe' Society


Diana Cooper - Cafe' Society


Isabelle Hubbert - The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson


Elsie de Wolfe - Cafe' Society


Elsa Schiaparelli - Cafe' Society


Daisy Fellowes - Cafe' Society


Coco Chanel - The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson