John Loengard
1940 (ca, original image) 2008 (publication)
Nickolas Muray "Babe Ruth" circa 1940
[Celebrating The Negative]

Gelatin silver print
Etherton Gallery
George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
Hands: David Wooters, 3.4.93
 
Nickolas Muray, a Hungarian Olympic fencing champion, came to the United States in 1913 and found work as an engraver for Condé Nast. In 1920 he opened a photographic studio of his own in Greenwich Village. For the next 45 years he took portraits of celebrities, (at the beginning he did many for Nast's Vanity Fair magazine), and photographed for advertising agencies.
 
Muray had a business-like attitude toward photography, as this head-on portrait of his fellow athlete George Herman Ruth suggests. "It is always the photographer's job to make his pictures as attractive and dramatic as possible," he wrote, adding, "You dream it, we'll photograph it all in a day's work."
 
This photograph is included in the portfolio Celebrating the Negative photographs by published by John Loengard, Etherton Gallery (2008), pl. 11
 
All photographs copyright ® John Loengard. Gelatin silver prints printed by Chuck Kelton, Kelton Labs, New York City, under the direct supervision of John Loengard. Printed on Ilford Multigrade Warm Glossy paper. Design and portfolio box construction by Jace Graf, Cloverleaf Studio, Austin, Texas.
 
Celebrating The Negative/Photographs by John Loengard was published by Etherton Gallery, Tucson, Arizona, in March, 2008, in an edition of eighteen portfolios, including fifteen numbered copies and three artist's proofs.
 
LL/28581