Baron Adolf de Meyer - Photographer

[fredo]

Adolf Gayne de Meyer was born in Paris in 1868 (said jacques-Emile Blanche), or at Helsinky (Edna Woolman Chase, in Always in Vogue), or in Austria (Cecil Beaton) or in germania (who's who, 1905)... He was in London in 1895 and be a friend of the prince of Wales. He was married in 1899 Donna Olga Alberta Caracciolo who was maybe a daughter of Edouard VII. He begin to make photos in 1903, worked with Diaghilev. In 1914, he went to America and worked for Vogue (1914-1918) and Harper's Bazaar. The first real fashion's photographer???
(sorry for my english)
meyer adolphe de 1919 ann andrews en jonas fb

meyer adolphe de 1920 helen lee worthing fb

meyer baron de 1918 mae murray fb

Source : hollywood, les grands photographes and the excellent book of Nancy Hall-Duncan : histoire de la photographie de mode

 

[fredo]

meyer baron de 1919 dorothy smoller en jenny fb

meyer baron de 1919 le comte étienne de beaumont fb

meyer baron de 1921 ann andrews en Jaeckel & sons fb

Same source. if someone has others photos of him...
fred

 

[Gloria01]

I LOVE him!

 

[fredo]

Thanks a lot for your answer. The only answer in eight months!!!
two others pictures, source : op. cit.
meyer adolphe de 1913 gertrude vanderbilt whitney fb

meyer adolphe de 1919 mode reboux fb

 

[nowohucianka]

This is kind of surprising to see so few posts on the first fashion photographer in history! (At least according to some people - my photography professor being one of them)

***Edited*** Dead link to image.

You can find more here although most of them are more "celebrity" rather than "fashion" pics.

 

[nowohucianka]

British National Portrait Gallery website

 

[kasper!]

From Style File

Before there was Steven, Mert, Marcus, Inez, Vinoodh, or even Irving, there was—wait for it—the Baron. If that name (Baron Adolph de Meyer, in full) means less to glossy devotees than the names of some of his later followers in the fashion-photo arts, blame the magazine world’s short memory. De Meyer, an amateur photographer taken on staff at Vogue in 1913 to give the still-small magazine a little high-society boost, created the editorial fashion spread as we know it. (Before him, Vogue carried mostly illustrations of dresses.) And as a new show of his work at NYC’s Robert Miller Gallery attests, we’re very much in his debt.

Looking through de Meyer’s photographs of turn-of-the-century beauties and celebrities—his wife and muse, Baroness Olga; Condé Nast’s own daughter Natica Nast; his famous shot of Nijinsky dancing L’après-midi d’un faun—what’s most striking is how contemporary they seem. (With the elaborate scene setting and masterful lighting, several of the photos, especially those of the Baroness, look like shots styled by Grace Coddington or Alex White.) But though the historical comparisons are impossible to ignore, the show aims to give de Meyer his artistic due, to “emphasize the strength of the images,” says curator Paul Richert-Garcia, “rather than present an historical survey.” Not bad for a so-called amateur.

—Julie Ragolia