Showing posts with label Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography. Show all posts

Monday, January 6, 2014

The mystery of photographer John de Mirjian


Perhaps you can help solve a small mystery?


In the 1920's, John de Mirjian was a well known photographer working in New York City. During his brief six year career, he photographed many leading Broadway entertainers, as well as many showgirls. To the right is a pleasant example of his work. He specialized in portraiture of women, and notably in what was then considered risque imagery. [The image to the left, typical of de Mirjian's work, is of Rose Marie Haynes, a performer with the Earl Carroll "Vanities."]

Today, de Mirjian is best remembered for the lawsuit brought against him by Louise Brooks. In late 1925, Brooks sued De Mirjian's to prevent publication of semi-nude images of the then up-and-coming actress. The suit made the news, and a series of stories appeared in papers around the country.

Those stories, such as "Follies Girl, Now in Films, Shocked by Own Pictures" and "Follies Girl Sues to Supress Her Very Artistic Photographs," only featured the most discrete images by de Mirjian.

John de Mirjian's life ended in September of 1928 when the car he was driving on Long Island crashed. According to press accounts, the playboy photographer was speeding along at 70 miles per hour when he lost control and overturned his automobile, a Peerless roadster. Roads were reported to have been slick in the greater NYC area on the day the accident took place. It wasn't known where de Mirjian was returning from, perhaps a party, as some newspapers reported. The woman in the car, an actress not his wife, at first claimed she was his half-sister. She was not. Her name was Gloria Christy.

The mystery is how old was John de Mirjian? Just about every newspaper in the greater New York City area carried a story on de Mirjian's death, with many putting the sensational news on the front page. Stories appeared in the New York Evening Post, Yonkers Statesman, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and elsewhere. I have read a handful of these newspaper accounts, and all but one reported his age. That's curious. Only the local Long-Islander newspaper stated de Mirjian was 30 years old.

There is little known about de Mirjian. When was he born? Where was he born? I tried doing a little genealogical research, but could find nothing. Perhaps someone more adept at researching historical records could find out. John De Mirjian's brother, with whom he operated a photo studio at 1595 Broadway in Manhattan, was named Arto. That's as much as I can find. Can you find more?

 
If you are interested in finding out more about John de Mirjian and his contemporaries, like M.I. Boris, Otto Dyar, and Eugene Robert Richee (all of who photographed Louise Brooks on more than one occasion), be sure and check out David Shields' outstanding new book, Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography (University Of Chicago Press). 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday, July 26, 2013

Still: Louise Brooks in Los Angeles Times

Today's Los Angeles Times reports on David S. Shields new book, Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography, which examines the work of early cinematographers and still photographers who helped create celebrity in the 20th century. It is an excellent book which I have only had a chance to glance at - I want to get a copy soon. Louise Brooks, as well as the photographers who photographed her - like Eugene Richee and M.I. Boris, are featured in the book.

The Los Angeles Times story can be found here. The review begins: "Shields is both scholarly and deeply passionate about the pictures (some from his own collection), gathering rare images from the sets of epic costume dramas and the kind of celebrity portraiture that would reach its ultimate expression generations later in Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone."

The article also includes a slideshow, which begins with an image of Louise Brooks (the famous Richee portrait of Brooks wearing a string of pearls). It's caption reads, "One of the most lasting images of the silent era is actress Louise Brooks wearing black against a black background, photographed by Eugene Robert Richee. In Still, David S. Shields calls it a "'minimalist masterpiece'." 



From the publisher: "The success of movies like The Artist and Hugo recreated the wonder and magic of silent film for modern audiences, many of whom might never have experienced a movie without sound. But while the American silent movie was one of the most significant popular art forms of the modern age, it is also one that is largely lost to us, as more than eighty percent of silent films have disappeared, the victims of age, disaster, and neglect. We now know about many of these cinematic masterpieces only from the collections of still portraits and production photographs that were originally created for publicity and reference. Capturing the beauty, horror, and moodiness of silent motion pictures, these images are remarkable pieces of art in their own right. In the first history of still camera work generated by the American silent motion picture industry, David S. Shields chronicles the evolution of silent film aesthetics, glamour, and publicity, and provides unparalleled insight into this influential body of popular imagery.
 
Exploring the work of over sixty camera artists, Still recovers the stories of the photographers who descended on early Hollywood and the stars and starlets who sat for them between 1908 and 1928. Focusing on the most culturally influential types of photographs—the performer portrait and the scene still—Shields follows photographers such as Albert Witzel and W. F. Seely as they devised the poses that newspapers and magazines would bring to Americans, who mimicked the sultry stares and dangerous glances of silent stars. He uncovers scene shots of unprecedented splendor—visions that would ignite the popular imagination. And he details how still photographs changed the film industry, whose growing preoccupation with artistry in imagery caused directors and stars to hire celebrated stage photographers and transformed cameramen into bankable names.
 
Reproducing over one hundred and fifty of these gorgeous black-and-white photographs, Still brings to life an entire long-lost visual culture that a century later still has the power to enchant."
Powered By Blogger