William Herbert Mortensen (January 27, 1897 – August 12, 1965) was an American
glamour photographer
Glamour photography is a genre of photography in which the subjects are portrayed in erotic poses ranging from fully clothed to nude. The term may be a euphemism for erotic photography. For glamour models, body shape and size are directly relate ...
, primarily known for his
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
portraits in the 1920s–1940s in the
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 ...
style.
Early life
Mortensen was born on January 27, 1897, in
Park City, Utah
Park City is a city in Utah, United States. The vast majority is in Summit County, and it extends into Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City' ...
, the son of Danish immigrants Agnes and William Peter Mortensen, who had immigrated from
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
in 1883.
Before serving in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Mortensen graduated from East Side High School in Salt Lake City. He then served as Private in Company D of the 13th Regiment of the United States Infantry
from August 6, 1918, to May 16, 1919. At his enlistment, he recorded his occupation as painting.
[ Se]
Inventory of Military service cards from Department of Administrative Services. Division Archives and Records Service, i ca. 1898-1975.
/ref>
After his discharge from the army, Mortensen briefly studied illustration at the Art Students League
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists ...
in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
In May 1920 he traveled in Greece, Italy, Egypt and Constantinople to "sketch for educational purposes". He returned to Utah, then traveled to Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
as an escort for his friend's sister, Fay Wray
Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian/American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong (1933 film), King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray a ...
.
After two years at the Art Students League he was declared to have "no talent for drawing". Undeterred by this verdict he borrowed money and took off for Greece, to make etchings of the monuments of ancient Attica.
Career
Mortensen was a very self-critical man who began his photographic career taking portraits of Hollywood actors and film stills. During the 1920s and 1930s, he was inspired by horror films being adapted in studios, and ended up making portraits about them in his own style. His favorite photographic topics were of witches, dancers, demons, peasants, and Shakespearean actors.
In 1931 he moved to the artist community of Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservat ...
, where he opened a studio and the William Mortensen School of Photography.
Working in the Pictorialist style, he manipulated photographs using pens, paints, pumice and razor blades to produce romanticist painting-like effects. Mortensen's style of art consisted of him using a bromoil process. The style brought him criticism from straight photographers of the modern realist movement and, in particular, he carried on a prolonged written debate with Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...
in the pages of ''Camera Craft
''Camera Craft'' was a monthly American magazine subtitled "A photographic monthly".
History
San Francisco-based ''Camera Craft'' began publication with the vol. 1, no. 1, May 1900 issue and ceased publication with vol. 49, no. 3, Mar. 1942 i ...
'' magazine.
His arguments defending romanticist photography led him to be "ostracized from most authoritative canons of photographic history". In an essay, Larry Lytle wrote, "Due to his approach—both technically and philosophically in opposition to straight or purist adherents—he is amongst the most problematic figures in photography in the twentieth-century ... historians and critics have described his images as "...anecdotal, highly sentimental, mildly erotic hand-colored prints...", "...bowdlerized versions of garage calendar pin-ups and sadomasochist entertainments...", "...contrived set-ups and sappy facial expressions...", and Ansel Adams variously referred to Mortensen as the "Devil", and "the anti-Christ." In addition, the more realistic photojournalism emerging from World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
correspondents, and carried in national newsmagazines, caused Mortensen's more posed and contrived photos to fade from the public mind. He was largely forgotten by the time of his death in 1965.
Recent years have brought praise for Mortensen's development of manipulation techniques and a renewed interest in his work. In 2013, one of Mortenson's students, portrait photographer Robert Balcomb, published a book—''Me and Mortensen''—about his time studying with Mortensen in Laguna Beach.
He wrote nine books about technique in photography in conjunction with George Dunham.
Mortensen was awarded the Hood medal from the Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
in 1949.
Bibliography
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References
External links
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* Includes links to reviews, essays, a documentary, and a PDF of ''Monsters & Madonnas''.
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* This contains discussion and examples of his nude photography.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortensen, William H.
1897 births
1965 deaths
20th-century American photographers
American portrait photographers
American people of Danish descent
People from Park City, Utah
Pictorialists
Photographers from California