Curtis Moffat: Silver Society: Experimental Photography and Design, 1923-1935

(Hardback)

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Description

This is the first publication on American artist Curtis Moffat who is known for his dynamic abstract photographs, innovative color still lifes and some of the most glamorous society portraits of the early twentieth century. Moffat was also a pivotal figure in Modernist interior design and furniture. Living in London throughout the 1920s and early '30s during the era of the "Bright Young Things," Moffat produced stylish photographic portraits of leading figures in high society, stage, theater and the arts, including Cecil Beaton, The Sitwells, Nancy Cunard, Lady Diana Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead and Daphne Du Maurier. In 2003 and 2007, Moffat's daughter, Penelope Smail, generously donated his extensive archive to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This book is drawn from that archive and also includes digital reconstructions of color images from original tri-carbro process black-and-white negatives. It reveals Moffat's pioneering yet little-known photography in all its depth and beauty.

Reviews

After World War I, photographer Curtis Moffat moved...from New York to London, where he opened a photography studio with the British socialite and society photographer Olivia Wyndham. Over the next decade, Moffat's stylish portraits of society women would capture the city's 'Bright Young Things' -- a name the British tabloids gave to a raucous crowd of young bohemian aristocrats and socialites.--Lena Rawley "New York Magazine"
Reveals some of [Curtis Moffat's] most compelling photographic works, drawn from the extensive archives[...] It includes portraits, photograms, candid 'snapshots', and a selection of striking color imagery.--Josh Bright "Independent Photographer"

Author Bio

Martin Barnes is Senior Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Martin Barnes is Senior Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum.