I visited the Vanity Fair exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last night, it was wonderful. I only had an hour there and it really wasn't half long enough - it took me that long to get round the 1913-36 years and I didn't have time to properly take in the shots from 1986 onwards. I'm very tempted to go back because I felt that the contrasts in concept and content, between the two eras, were striking.
I came away with an even greater respect for Edward Steichen's photography. For me, his shots were luminous. I also spotted a nice little trick he uses in his portraits. He often creates a line in his background, which cuts the image just a little way in. The more I looked the more I saw it, or perhaps it's just my selective viewing...
Some examples that I spotted.
Noel Coward, Paul Robeson, Anna May Wong and, of course, the image above of Greta Garbo.
Wonderful stuff.
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