Were you to see this top photograph for the first time, what year would you place it in? I am certain you wouldn’t go as back as 1950. Yes, it does look much more like a 2010s Céline campaign. This was the pioneering vision of Louise Dahl-Wolfe. A new book about the fashion photographer, Louise Dahl-Wolfe
, is out, which made me revisit some of her work. Her photographs were infused with natural light, vitality and a new sensibility, which was an overdue departure from the stiff black-and-white society portraits that still dominated the burgeoning world of fashion photography when she was hired at Harper’s Bazaar in 1936. These photos here, for example, are a great reflection of her very relaxed and modern approach not only to fashion photography, but to a new, more natural and more casual look for women.
photos: Louise Dahl-Wolfe / 1,2,4-Hammamet, Tunisia, 1950 / 3-Mojave Desert, California, 1948 / 5-Tunisia, 1950 / 6-Miami, Florida, 1943
