Another Silent Photographer Favorite Max Munn Autrey

Max M. Autrey was born on May 23, 1891 in Dallas, Texas.

He was a still photographer on four films including "Modern Times" with Charlie Chaplin.

According to the Los Angles Times:

Most of the silent-movie stars photographed by a twentysomething Autrey in the 1920s for Fox Studio are forgotten today, with the exception of Clara Bow, the "It" girl. "It," of course, really meant "sex," and, even in the demure bathing suit of the time, Bow's exuberant, upraised-arm stance in swirling surf gave her an air of ready-for-anything sauciness.

Other Autrey shots include an image of Madge Bellamy coyly poised on tiptoe or Lanore De Lara vamping in what appears to be a hastily constructed toga.

He was mainly a portrait photographer for the Witzel Photography Studio in Downtown L.A. between the 1920s and 50s, noted for the glamour styles of the subjects and clientele which graced his work, especially those identified in the realm of motion pictures.

The soft, delicate shadow of a tree in the latter portrait represented a trickle-down effect from the art photography movement known as Pictorialism.

His works have become popular even appearing at museum shows alongside some of the greats like Hurrell.

He died August 5, 1971 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 80.

For more information and photographs you may want to check out this book:

Max Munn Autrey: One Photographer's Hollywood by Constance W. Glenn, David Quinn, Louise Moore, Alma Friedman and Mark Norton. 

Here are some of his pictures:

Mary Duncan

Mary Duncan again

 

Jean Harlow

 

Jean looking spectacular.

 

 

 

Book showcasing Autrey's Book

 

Greta Nissen

 

He did many photographs of Olive Borden.

 

 

Both of these are Delores Del Rio.

 

Fifi Dorsay

 

Madge Bellamy

 

Billy Poobah

 

Marjorie Beebe

 

Profile of John Wayne

 

Anna Nilsson

 

Thelma  Todd

 

Janet Gaynor

 

 

Margaret Livingston

 

Delia Magana

 

Katie-Louise Ford

 

Eve Arden

 

Marguerite Churchill

 

Here are three of the great Myrna Loy above.

The Supreme Hollywood Photography of Elmer Fryer

Elmer Fryer is another Hollywood great who cannot be missed when mentioning the glamour photography of yesteryear.

Fryer was born January 21, 1898 in Springfield, Missouri.  He began working as a photographer in 1924.  When Warner Brothers and First National Studios joined operations in 1929, Fryer replaced Fred Archer as head of the new Warner-First National Stills Department.  During the 1930s he took portraits of Dolores Del Rio, Kay Francis, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, George Brent among other Warner Brothers stars.  Fryer left Warner Brothers in 1941, shortly before his death at age 46 on March 3, 1944.

Fryer is known for his detailed and complex eye for posing his subjects.  He had a wonderful sense of modernist style and fashion.  He made use of the art deco period's elegant shading and shadowing in black and white photography.

Joan Blondell

Alice White

Polly Walters

Bette Davis

Thelma Todd

Lili Damita

Myrna Loy

Marion Davies

Louise Brooks

Loretta Young

Mary Astor

Dolores Del Rio

Constance Bennett

Bebe Daniels

Here is one of Marion Davies that shows many details of the art deco period.

Olivia De Havilland

Here are some photographs of Fryer with his subjects:

With Bette Davis, who he photographed often.

With Jane Wyman

Here is an example of Fryer's embossed stamp:

This is the back of the photo of Davis and Fryer together listed and shown above.

An official back ink stamp.