The moment I saw her colour photographs, I knew Bazaar would finally look the way I'd always instinctively wanted it to look.
Born in San Francisco in 1895 to Norwegian immigrants, photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe is best known for her work for the fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar between 1936 and 1958. During those 20 years, she developed what became known as ‘environmental fashion photography’, as she photographed the models in an environment outside of the fashion house's premises.
Outdoor shots became her trademark, and exotic destinations such as South America, Cuba, Africa and Morocco were among the locations she explored. Her husband, Meyer Wolfe, was a sculptor and often created the backdrops and objects for her photographs.
Louis Dahl-Wolfe studied design with Rudolph Schaffer and painting with Frank Van Sloan at the San Francisco Institute of Art, but her training also included drawing, anatomy and figurative composition. After, she began studying design, decoration and architecture at Columbia University in New York. With women as her main source of inspiration, she discovered Anne Brigman's photographs early on while she was still exploring painting. However, her interest shifted more and more to the field of photography and she started taking pictures of herself.
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Dahl-Wolfe not only photographed models, but also created portraits of literary greats, fashion designers and Hollywood stars. Her portfolio includes recordings by Mae West, Cecil Beaton, Eudora Welty, W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Orson Welles, Carson McCullers, Edward Hopper, Colette, Josephine Baker, Bette Davis, and Vivien Leigh. Her favorite fashion model, appearing in several of her shots, was American fashion model Mary Jane Russell.
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With her photographs, she wanted to create a new image of the modern woman who moved independently in the changing world of the post-war period.
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Between 1933 and 1960, Louise had her own studio in New York, taking commissions for stores such as Bonwit Teller and Saks Fifth Avenue, and working as a fashion photographer at Harper's Bazaar.
With her photographs, Louise Dahl-Wolfe not only changed the representation of women and fashion, but she also distinguished herself with her precision and technique of color in the early days of color photography.
"The moment I saw her color photographs, I knew Bazaar was finally going to look the way I've always instinctively wanted it to look," said Carmel Snow, who had been the magazine's editor-in-chief during Louise's time at Harper's Bazaar.
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Her innovative fashion photography inspired photographers such as Irving Penn, Horst P. Horst and Richard Avedon. In 1950 she was voted one of ‘America's Outstanding Women Photographers’ by Foto Magazine. After 1958 she worked as a freelance photographer for Vogue and Sports Illustrated, among others. She died in 1989, aged 94, in Allendale, New Jersey.
