Stunning Fashion Photography in the 1940s by George Platt Lynes

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Born 1907 in East Orange, New Jersey, American fashion and commercial photographer George Platt Lynes was soon receiving commissions from Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, and Vogue including a cover with perhaps the first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives. In 1935, he was asked to document the principal dancers and productions of Kirstein’s and George Balanchine’s newly founded American Ballet company (now the New York City Ballet).

Fashion photography in the 1940s by George Platt Lynes

By the mid-1940s Lynes began to lose interest in his commercial fashion photography and grew disillusioned with New York. In 1946, he left for Hollywood where he took the post of Chief Photographer for the Vogue studios. There he photographed major figures in the film industry, including Katherine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Gloria Swanson and Orson Welles, as well as leading figures of the arts and literature, among them Aldous Huxley, Igor Stravinsky and Thomas Mann. After just two years, he ran into financial trouble, and in 1948, his friends helped sponsor his move back to New York.

Lynes returned to a post-war New York where new photographers, such as Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, had taken his place in the fashion world. This fact, coupled with his increasing disinterest in commercial work, meant he was never able to regain the successes he once had.

Lynes spent most of his time focusing on homoerotic imagery, and he began working with Dr. Alfred Kinsey and his Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. His financial troubles persisted, and twice he was forced to declare bankruptcy.

In May 1955, Lynes was diagnosed terminally ill with lung cancer. He closed his studio and even destroyed much of his print and negative archives. After a final trip to Europe, Lynes returned to New York City where he died on December 6, 1955. Take a look at these stunning photos to see his fashion photography in the 1940s.