George Platt Lynes
- Category : Art-Photography
- Type : GP
- Profile : 4/6 - Opportunistic / Role Model
- Definition : Split - Small (3,9,53)
- Incarnation Cross : RAX Maya 1
Biography
American photographer whose work is best known for stylized and elegantly lit black and white photography which has been called "luminous and liminal." His career includes documenting the dancers and poses of Balanchine's ballet company, fashion photography, portraits of nudes, and homoerotic photographs and self-portraits.
A precocious and advantaged child, he was able to travel to Europe in his teens, where, in 1925 he Gertrude Stein and Jean Cocteau. He also met Monroe Wheeler and Glenway Westcott who included Lynes in their homosexual love affair. He received his first camera in 1927 and became engrossed in photography. In 1928 he traveled with Wheeler and Westcott back to Europe, this time with camera, and began taking photographs of the celebrities he met. Four years later, in 1932, he had his first solo exhibition where his luscious portraits of the literati and artists of the day won rave reviews. Harpers Bazaar and Vogue, leading fashion magazines hired him for their fashion and celebrity portraits. In 1946 he moved to Los Angeles to head up Vogue's Hollywood office but, tiring of the world of commerce, he returned to New York and to his studio where he could shoot portraits of the famous intellectuals and artists of the day. By 1950 he was in financial difficulties until Alfred Kinsey purchased over 600 of Platt's photographs.
In 1954 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He destroyed much of the work he still owned and died December 6, 1955 at the age of forty eight.