Still

American Silent Motion Picture Photography

David S. Shields

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780226013268
• eBook ISBN: 9780226013435
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism

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.

INDEX

Abbe, James, 4, 18, 56, 94, 128–29, 139, 160, 242, 266–79; Home Talent, 273–75; Wonderful Years, 268–69

Academy Awards, 352, 354

Adams, Ansel, 237

Adam’s Rib, 221

advertisement, 4, 21, 47, 76, 159, 292, 301

aesthetics, 4, 22–23, 39, 47, 59–62, 91–92, 103, 136–37, 143–45, 199, 207, 236–37, 242, 261; industrial studio, 15, 60–62, 144, 242–44; of visual fashion, 244–45; symbolist, 195, 245, 250

Ahrens, Theodore, 222–24, 226, 231

Albert, Elsie, 79

Alberts, Sergis, 58

Albin, Charles, 56, 205, 242, 266–67; Romola, 278, 230–33

album, 35, 76

Alcorn, Olive, 99

Alexander, Kenneth, 56, 160, 266–67, 285–89, 336

Alien, The, 57

Allan, Ted, 184, 344

Alta Studio, 99

American Biograph and Mutoscope Company, 71, 133, 266

American Book of Beauty, 48, 66

American Film Company, 129–30

Ancker, Julian, 336

Anderson, Anthony, 213–15

Anderson, Gilbert Max (Bronco Billy Anderson), 303–5, 309

animation, 232–33

Annie Laurie, 267, 295

Anthony and Cleopatra, 106

Apeda, NY, 123

Apfel, Oscar, 143

Aphrodite, 197–98

appearance, 39, 50, 60–62

Arbuckle, Roscoe “Fatty,” 127, 295; The Red Mill, 295

Archer, Fred, 336, 355–58

Arliss, George, 2, 7, 340

Arnold, John, 295

art direction, 140–43, 150–57, 203–4, 223, 224–25, 229, 363; built visual environments, 154, 207, 281–84

Artcraft Pictures, 53, 139, 192

Artist’s Great Madonna, The, 201

Aryan, The, 314

Arzner, D...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Frontispiece
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Overture
• I. Inventing Glamour, Composing Worlds
• II. The Visual Artists
• III. Artistry and Regimen
• Notes
• Index