The exhibition presents images by Leslie Gill and Frances McLaughlin-Gill, as well as work by their close contemporaries Erwin Blumenfeld, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Paul Outerbridge, Gordon Parks, Norman Parkinson, Irving Penn, and Man Ray.
A sheer delight! What curator Elisabeth Biondi has compiled here of real classics of photography is astounding, delectable and now, through a tender, knowing hand, now even to be enjoyed.
Leslie Gill was active between 1935-1957and his wife Frances McLaughlin-Gill produced in 1943-1993 - the marriage made in heaven only had ten years with each other in company - but what a decade! Here Condé Nast turned into High Art!
That he is named the epigone of modern still life is not surprising: We find the “Head of a woman” by Leslie Gill, circa 1940, her hair being observe from above, the model in a lying perspective, a singular wave of hair, shimmering in Black-and-White. In Rome in 1941, he turns actress Anna Magnani into an icon. We see an enchanting full portray of Principessa Letizia Boncompagni, Ludovisi, Rome, 1947, her Highness in pensive, yet amused mood, tenderly taken by Gill. Frances McLaughlin-Gill catches a „Model in Chinchilla Coat,“ in East Norwich, Long Island, c.1947, in swinging A-Dress, presumably by Dior.
The exhibition is flanked by works of contemporaries: Erwin Blumenfeld, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Paul Outerbridge, Gordon Parks, Norman Parkinson, Irving Penn, und Man Ray.
Irving Penn´s - “Twelve of the Most Photographed Models of the Period”, (1947) is breathtaking - Blumenfelds „Shadow Profile“, Paris, 1936-37 not less. On to Gordon Parks, whose “Frances McLaughlin-Gill and Bettina Graziani Outside Hunter College” (1950) shows an elf of a frail-elegant lady behind a camera.

More informations at: Howard Greenberg Gallery