Nandin's World: Abbe James- Photographer

Abbe James ( 1883-1973)

James Abbe was born in 1883 in Alfred, Maine. He traveled throughout Europe as a young photojournalist recording the unstable power struggles of the early 20th century. However, he first made a name for himself photographing movie stars in New York, Paris, and London throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s. Most of his well known black and white photos are that of celebrities portraying the “lure of the limelight.” His unusual technique of not doing his work in his studio, set him apart from other photographers of this time period, and changed the way the world viewed publicity stills. To make money, Abbe sold his photographs to magazines like “Vogue” and “Vanity Fair”. Mainly because of this, media induced celebrity was brought about.

Jamme Abbe's choice of a simple, uncluttered backdrop and soft use of lighting accentuates the seductiveness of Gilda Gray, a dancer in Ziegfield Follies and other Broadway revues. Like many fashion photographs of its time, it promotes a feeling that we are privy to something intimate - as if Gray has been captured unawares, dreamily caught up in her own thoughts with her eyes turned away from the lens. Taken in Paris in 1924, the photograph seizes the essence of mid -1920s eveningwear- a plumb line dress, possibly by Lanvin or Patou, in filmy sensuous fabric trimmed with fingered tiers. In the early twentieth century, American photographer James Abbe favoured taking portraits of stage and screen actresses. His well-mannered work for American Vogue represented what Alexander Liberman called " ...an underlying dream of a world where poeple act and behave in civilized manner"

After gaining some public notice Abbe began submitting his work to some major publications including “London Magazine” and “IllustrireZeitung.” These were used as early prototypes for “LIFE Magazine” andhelped in the creation of the phrase ‘candids’ or, lengthy stories with multiple photographs.Abbe also took photographs during the Spanish Civil War and the Nazi’s rise in Germany. Also, his well-known portrait of Joseph Stalin was used to stop rumor about the Soviet Union.

Abbe’s book, I Photograph Russia was published in 1934. This work includes eighty photographs taken by Abbe. In Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, there is a James Abbe Photographer exhibit that is on display through November 5, 2000.With this exhibition there is also a catalogue that includes texts by Brooks Johnson, and Terence Pepper.

His son, also named James Abbe, also was a photographer who worked for Harper's Bazaar.