On George Baher's yacht (from left) June Cox, E. Vogt, Lee Miller and Hanna-Lee Sherman (1928). Pictures: Edward Steichen. Courtesy: Conde Nast Archive; copyright Conde Nast Publications. Source: Supplied
NO one ever photographed Jay Gatsby.
But if anybody could have trapped the enigmatic hero of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby with a camera, it would have been Edward Steichen.
In the roaring '20s and early 1930s, Steichen was chief photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines - the Annie Leibovitz of his day - and best able to dramatise and glamorise the culture of the Jazz Age.
Greta Garbo came under Steichen's probing lens. So did Charlie Chaplin and Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. Which makes it easy to imagine him being summoned to Gatsby's palatial house out on Long Island and setting up a "shoot".
"Steichen was in a league of his own,'' says Susan van Wyk, photography curator at the National Gallery of Victoria.
"The most highly paid portrait photographer in the world ... and incredibly influential.''
Just how influential is made plain in a dramatic new exhibition at NGV International. Edward Steichen & Art Deco Fashion sets 200 vintage Steichen photographs, drawn from Conde Nast vaults in America, against more than 30 exquisite Deco-era garments and accessories in the gallery's own collection. One archive illuminates the other and highlights the interplay between art and commerce. Between what appeared on glossy magazine pages, what was worn to Hollywood parties and what worked its way into the mainstream. As van Wyk says: "The whole idea of celebrities being on the cover of magazines and influencing fashion and style really comes out of this time.''
Dancers Leonore Hughes and Maurice Mouvet (1924). Source: Supplied
European-born Steichen (1879-1973) made his name in Paris as an innovative commercial photographer with an instinctive feel for fashion. Forceful and experimental, he was expert at rendering the sheen, cut and fold of fabric and conveying the character of the models he photographed.
New York publisher Conde Nast was impressed. In 1923, he hired Steichen to shoot fashion photographs for Vogue and celebrity portraits for Vanity Fair.
Gloria Swanson was an early subject. Steichen's famous 1924 portrait of the actor masked her face with a lacy scrim and typified the soft-focus style he favoured then. But as Nast's publications adopted a sharper look, in keeping with the hard lines of Art Deco, his images swam into focus with dramatic light effects and deep gulches of shadow.
Steichen also began arranging studio tableaus which aspired to "a modern, unphotographic ideal of beauty".
"Steichen was asking questions fashion photographers hadn't asked before," van Wyk says. "What does this garment embody? And how do I show what this garment makes you feel?''
Well-to-do women in the 1920s felt liberated. Suddenly, they could hold down jobs and earn money and do things only men had previously done, such as smoking cigarettes, driving cars and enjoying nights on the town.
Vogue was their style guide - the go-to source for all things chic whether it be bobbed hair or fringed hemlines - and Steichen's photographs caught this thoroughly modern moment with images of flapper gals reclining on yachts and carousing in nightclubs.
Actress Gloria Swanson (1924). Source: Supplied
Fashionable evening clothing even began to accommodate specific dance moves. As Paola Di Trocchio, the NGV's fashion curator, says: "The Foxtrot was one long continuous movement while the Charleston was more vigorous and energetic. So, a shorter dress covered in sequins and beads that swayed to the rhythms just looked fantastic.''
Edward Steichen & Art Deco Fashion features some of these beaded gems (think Chanel and Madame Paquin) and seeing them up close, you may be surprised how colourful they look. Who would have thought Art Deco style ran to lolly pinks and midnight blues, gorgeous golds and jungle greens?
Being modern between the wars also meant being active and sportswear reflected the growing athleticism of women. At the NGV, visitors can admire a striking Steichen portrait of Olympic diver Katherine Rawls (1931), then look up at real '20s swimwear on a mannequin poised on a diving board.
"The kind of images Steichen was making shaped the way people expected to see fashion photography,'' van Wyk says. By the 1930s, these images were crossing over with his celebrity portraiture and movie stars - now starring in talkies - were modelling the gowns they wore on screen on the covers of Vogue and Vanity Fair.
"That's when the influence of Hollywood styling comes into broader ideas about fashion," Di Trocchio says. "The circle is closed."
Special events are planned today and tomorrow to mark the opening weekend of Edward Steichen & Art Deco Fashion. There are forums and films, a Hip Cats and Glamour Girls tour and a Charleston dance demonstration in the Great Hall. Van Wyk says: "It's great we can introduce audiences to Steichen and works from our collection in such an accessible way."
Gatsby would no doubt approve.
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Edward Steichen and Art Deco Fashion, NGV International (St Kilda Rd) until March 2, 2014. Entry: $12 adults, $10 concession. ngv.vic.gov.au
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