Josephine Baker, 1929

George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion, Film is the first publication in almost 40 years on the work of a photographer whose images spanned fashion, Hollywood and travel. Josephine Baker is perhaps the best remembered of the Jazz Age performers, and Huene made several striking portraits of her for Vanity Fair. She would wear hoop earrings and gold-plated ‘Giraffe’ necklaces inlaid with lacquer, the design of the art deco master jeweller Jean Dunand. George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion, Film by Susanna Brown is published by Thames and Hudson

Oliver Messel, 1929

Baron George Hoyningen-Huene (1900–1968) worked during the golden age of couture fashion and Hollywood cinema. Susanna Brown, curatorial advisor to the George Hoyningen-Huene Estate Archives, says: ‘Huene’s career began among avant garde creatives in 1920s Paris, and his early photographs for Vogue were shaped by influences from both the classical world and the machine age’

Male torso with white drapery, 1930

‘A deep artistic sensibility and a talent for sculpting the body with light enabled him to create graceful fantasies that transcend the magazine page and transport us to a bygone era of glamour’

Reflection: Vogue’s Eye View of the Mode (Mrs Hubbell), 1930

‘Between 1926 and 1935, Huene’s photographs for Vogue projected a vision of Paris as the centre of the elegant world, its inhabitants and designers the apogee of chic and sophistication. An examination of his photographs from this period reveals his shifting sources of inspiration and his growing power as an arbiter of taste’

Serge Lifar and Olga Spessivtseva as Bacchus and Ariadne, 1931

Born in St Petersburg, Huene’s wealthy family had to flee their home during the Russian Revolution in 1917. For the Ballets Russes, Huene photographed the company’s principal dancers Serge Lifar and Olga Spessivtseva in costumes by Giorgio de Chirico, their angular limbs arranged against a black backdrop to form a star-like composition

Divers, swimwear by AJ Izod, 1930

This is Huene’s most famous picture, photographed in the summer of 1930 on the roof of the studio at 65 avenue des Champs-Élysées. Susanna Brown notes it likely depicts Lee Miller and Horst P Horst. You can read more about it with the Observer’s Big Picture feature

Lee Miller and Agneta Fischer, 1932

In 1930, Huene took on Lee Miller and Horst Bohrmann (later known as Horst P Horst) as apprentices. Miller observed that Huene’s approach was ‘an entirely different kind of photography’ compared with the previous work she had undertaken with Man Ray

Balenciaga, 1939

The images and articles presented in Vogue reflected the interests of the modern woman and influenced her choices regarding where to shop and what to wear. Huene remarked: ‘I asked myself over and over ... how do I represent the modern woman in the true light of the period’

Coco Chanel, Paris, 1932

Chanel and Huene first met in the early 1920s. She surrounded herself with talented creatives, with whom Huene became acquainted. Chanel’s 1987 advertising campaign for suncare products pays homage to Huene’s Divers

Portrait of the Dalís in L’Instant Sublime, 1939

Other members of Chanel’s circle with whom Huene became acquainted included Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau, (who collaborated with Chanel on theatre and ballet costumes)

Cecil Beaton, Ashcombe, 1930

Huene spent time in England before moving to Paris, where he was employed to create photographs for Vogue and Vanity Fair, and rapidly established himself as a visual innovator, fusing elements of neoclassicism and surrealism to create chic, arresting images

Frank Capra, c 1934

During Huene’s tenure movies began to occupy more space in Condé Nast’s magazines. In 1934 he went to Hollywood to photograph stars for Vanity Fair

Marlene Dietrich, 1936

Many of Huene’s subjects during this period were based at Paramount Pictures, including Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Mae West and the director Ernst Lubitsch. Paramount was regarded as having a strong European sensibility and Huene likely felt at home among this coterie. Here, Huene’s lighting accentuates Dietrich’s sculpted features and prominent cheekbones

Katharine Hepburn, 1939

In 1951 Huene oversaw the redesign of George Cukor’s home (of the lower garden, which included a patio, trees and lanterns inspired by the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, in Andalusia). The home was a pivotal meeting place for Hollywood’s queer community: guests at regular weekend parties included Cary Grant, Greta Garbo and Katharine Hepburn, whom Huene referred to as ‘my favourite star’

Judy Garland, 1945

In 1935, Huene joined Harper’s Bazaar, where he remained a contributor until 1946, following which he settled in California and embarked on a second career as a colour coordinator for Hollywood movies. In 1946 Huene became a naturalised American citizen