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Louis Faurer
Louis Faurer was one of America's "quiet" photographers. Known for his raw, melancholy, and psychologically charged pictures of life on the street, and in particular for his evocative shots of 1940s and 1950s Times Square, New York, Faurer frequently drew on the film noir idiom to create memorable images. Photographs of moviegoers, box-office lines, ushers, and cinemas advertising B movies such as Force of Evil, Edge of Doom, and Ace in the Hole are recurrent themes.
Much of Faurer's best work, though, is of ordinary people, and he frequently haunted the streets of New York, finding poetry amid the crackle of the city. In an untitled picture taken in 1937 in Philadelphia, the trousers, jacket cuffs, and cane of a seated man are in sharp focus, as are a box of pencils and a sign announcing "I am totally blind." Hurrying past him are the blurred images of pedestrians. Other shots such as I Am Paralyzed, Daddy Warbucks, and Eddie combine a social and personal awareness that was rare for its time.
Faurer also worked as a fashion photographer for nearly thirty years, producing work for Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Flair, with a particular gift for highlighting his subject's ephemeral grace. He was a lasting influence on Robert Frank and other members of the New York school of photography.
This book, the first to examine Faurer's work in depth and bring it to a modern readership, draws together a great deal of previously unpublished material, as well as images not seen since they originally appeared in magazines in the 1940s and 1950s.
Much of Faurer's best work, though, is of ordinary people, and he frequently haunted the streets of New York, finding poetry amid the crackle of the city. In an untitled picture taken in 1937 in Philadelphia, the trousers, jacket cuffs, and cane of a seated man are in sharp focus, as are a box of pencils and a sign announcing "I am totally blind." Hurrying past him are the blurred images of pedestrians. Other shots such as I Am Paralyzed, Daddy Warbucks, and Eddie combine a social and personal awareness that was rare for its time.
Faurer also worked as a fashion photographer for nearly thirty years, producing work for Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Flair, with a particular gift for highlighting his subject's ephemeral grace. He was a lasting influence on Robert Frank and other members of the New York school of photography.
This book, the first to examine Faurer's work in depth and bring it to a modern readership, draws together a great deal of previously unpublished material, as well as images not seen since they originally appeared in magazines in the 1940s and 1950s.
- GenresPhotographyArtFashion
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 31, 2011
Memorable photographs by a forgotten and almost lost photographer.
Louis Faurer has a small body of work compared to the other important photographers of his era. He is also considered to be one of the missing links in the arc of photography between the two influential photographers Walker Evans and Robert Frank. These relatively unknown and certainly under appreciated photographers in the middle of the twentieth century were 'noir artists even if their work did not match all the rules that some wish to impose on the genre.
Faurer primarily worked as a fashion photographer in both the United States and Europe with his work gracing the covers of many of the famous rags including Glamour at the time it was the publication. He burned out on the world of commercial photography but still worked with the aid of grants and in new realms including finally being shown as an art photographer later in life.
In 1950 Louis Faurer joined the staff of the magazine Flair for its short lived run as an exceptional publication. Andy Warhol's Interview would take much from the early editions of Flair in terms of design concepts including foldouts and montages of photographic and graphic art.
Faurer's photographic life was effectively ended by the injuries he suffered when hit by a bus. No serious work was known from him after that tragedy.
The works of Faurer are on an image by image basis known to many people, serious and casual observers of the genre alike. Few people have until recently connected his Time's Square photos with his images of the crippled, distressed and societal cast offs that would perhaps inspire the work of Diane Arbus. His Fashion work while successful was never famous just because he made the image. In this he was not unlike many fashion photographers of the era who turned in fine images that were workman quality over which few quibbles could be made. Yet there are a few that you have seen and didn't know.
A book worth reading for the monographs at the beginning and for going through the photographs to add more visual links to the catalog of Photograph Art and history.
Louis Faurer has a small body of work compared to the other important photographers of his era. He is also considered to be one of the missing links in the arc of photography between the two influential photographers Walker Evans and Robert Frank. These relatively unknown and certainly under appreciated photographers in the middle of the twentieth century were 'noir artists even if their work did not match all the rules that some wish to impose on the genre.
Faurer primarily worked as a fashion photographer in both the United States and Europe with his work gracing the covers of many of the famous rags including Glamour at the time it was the publication. He burned out on the world of commercial photography but still worked with the aid of grants and in new realms including finally being shown as an art photographer later in life.
In 1950 Louis Faurer joined the staff of the magazine Flair for its short lived run as an exceptional publication. Andy Warhol's Interview would take much from the early editions of Flair in terms of design concepts including foldouts and montages of photographic and graphic art.
Faurer's photographic life was effectively ended by the injuries he suffered when hit by a bus. No serious work was known from him after that tragedy.
The works of Faurer are on an image by image basis known to many people, serious and casual observers of the genre alike. Few people have until recently connected his Time's Square photos with his images of the crippled, distressed and societal cast offs that would perhaps inspire the work of Diane Arbus. His Fashion work while successful was never famous just because he made the image. In this he was not unlike many fashion photographers of the era who turned in fine images that were workman quality over which few quibbles could be made. Yet there are a few that you have seen and didn't know.
A book worth reading for the monographs at the beginning and for going through the photographs to add more visual links to the catalog of Photograph Art and history.
January 18, 2014
Gorgeous, provocative, gritty ---
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews