Wayne Clinton Albee (1882–1937) was an American

pictorialist Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

photographer, best known for his portraits of dancers such as ballerina

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th ...

, Adoplh Bolm of the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...

, and early

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

pioneers

Doris Humphrey Doris Batcheller Humphrey (October 17, 1895 – December 29, 1958) was an American dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Along with her contemporaries Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second gen ...

Ted Shawn Ted Shawn (born Edwin Myers Shawn; October 21, 1891 – January 9, 1972) was a male pioneer of American modern dance. He created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their separation he created the all-male company Te ...

, and

Ruth St. Denis Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Denis; January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art. She was the co-founder of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and the teac ...

. Albee got his start at age sixteen, working in a photographic supply shop owned by

Byron Harmon Byron Hill Harmon (1876–1942)Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies was a pioneering photographer of the Canadian Rockies.Holt, Faye ReinebergCanada's Rocky Mountains: A History in Photographs p. 81 (2010) ("The best known of Canada's mountain pho ...

. He went on to work for McBride Studios with business partner

Ella E. McBride Ella Etna McBride (November 17, 1862 – September 14, 1965) was an American fine-art photographer, mountain climber, and centenarian known for her career achievements after age sixty. In addition to running her own photography studio for over t ...

. She soon become a well-known photographer in her own right, and credited Albee's influence with inspiring her to learn to take her own photographs. He also was an early mentor to the Japanese American photographers

Frank Kunishige Asakichi “Frank” Kunishige (1878-1960) was a Japanese-American Pictorialist photographer. He was a founding member of the Seattle Camera Club. He created and sold his own photographic paper, Textura Tissue, which was a favorite of club mem ...

and

Soichi Sunami Soichi Sunami (角南壮一, given name translating as "magnificent first son," and family name translating as "south corner"; 1885–1971) was a modernist photographer, influenced by the pictorialist movement, and best known for his portraits ...

, who assisted him at McBride Studios. He was an informal advisor to the Seattle Camera Club, and he also served for many years as the chief judge at the

Frederick & Nelson Frederick & Nelson was a department store chain in the northwestern United States, based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891 as a furniture store, it later expanded to sell other types of merchandise. The company was acquired by Marshall Fiel ...

art salons.

References

1882 births 1937 deaths Dance photographers Pictorialists American portrait photographers People from Saint Paul, Minnesota 20th-century American photographers {{US-photographer-stub