Le Ziegfeld Follies.

I absolutely needed some major retro inspiration today!
Had this sudden urge to make my eyes rest on something stunning from the past.

All stones can be thrown at me and a lot can be said about pure commercial nature of this work or even about beautiful female bodies being presented as objects. Yet I definitely see more than all this to these vintage photographs by Alfred Cheney Johnston.

The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions staged on Broadway (New York City) from 1907 to 1931. Inspired by the Folies Bergère in Paris, the Ziegfeld Follies were conceived and edited by Florenz Ziegfeld.

And Alfred Cheney Johnston (born in 1889) was just a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in New York, interested in photography at an amateur level.

Johnston was hired as the official photographer of the Ziegfeld Follies by Ziegfeld himself around 1916, who promoted his productions as a "glorification of the American girl" and it was Johnston's task, through his photographs, to capture this vision. It is easy to imagine how much of a resonance his photographs caused!
In fact, his style profoundly influenced the overall image of Hollywood in those years. After Ziegfeld's death, Johnston continued working for another seven years until, in 1940, he retired to his Connecticut property, dedicating himself completely to nude photography. He died in 1971.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at the ultimate beauties of the roaring era, so now we all can go back to work in our digital fields until this (yet another) day is over 🤓