Tag: Edward J. Steichen, Eduard Jean Steichen, Edward Steichen

Edward Steichen :: Wind Fire – Thérèse Duncan, adopted daughter of Isadora Duncan, on the Acropolis, 1921 / src: Stephen Ellcock

more [+] by Edward Steichen

Note:
“While on holiday in Venice in 1921, Steichen encountered his friend,
the dancer Isadora Duncan, who persuaded him to accompany her and her
dance troupe to Greece. Hoping to make motion pictures of the dancers at
the Acropolis, Steichen was disappointed when Isadora felt uninspired
and unenthusiastic about participating in such a collaboration, and
posed only for a few still photographs. However, Isadora’s adopted
daughter, Thérèse, also agreed to pose for his camera, and, in his
autobiography, Steichen described their session which produced more
interesting results: “She was a living reincarnation of a Greek nymph.
Once, while photographing the Parthenon, I lost sight of her, but I
could hear her. When I asked where she was, she raised her arms in
answer. I swung the camera around and photographed her arms against the
background of the Erechtheum. And then we went out to a part of the
Acropolis behind the Parthenon, and she posed on a rock, against the sky
with her Greek garments. The wind pressed the garments tight to her
body, and the ends were left flapping and fluttering. They actually
crackled. This gave the effect of fire – ‘Wind Fire…’”(A Life in Photography, chap. 6).

source of text

Harriet Hoctor by Steichen

Edward Steichen ~ American dancer Harriet Hoctor on pointe with arms stretched, wearing all black [unpublished (?)] | src Conde Nast via getty images

Hoctor (Sept. 25, 1905 – June 9, 1977) started touring with vaudeville companies at age 16 on the same bill as the Duncan Sisters. She was asked to join their act and became a key player in their Topsy and Eva show on Broadway. She was discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld, who cast her in his production of The Three Musketeers (1928) and several other shows followed throughout the next decade.

By the time these photos were taken she was back in the States after a season at the London Hippodrome (in a production called Bow Bells). She appeared in the Vanities revue of Earl Carroll in 1932, and later in the decade in the Ziegfeld Follies, notably in a ballet arranged by Hoctor with the aid of George Balanchine titled Night Flight.

Edward Steichen ~ American dancer Harriet Hoctor standing on toe point, with arms raised above head and wearing a black costume [unpublished (?)]. | src Conde Nast via getty images
Edward Steichen ~ American dancer Harriet Hoctor on point in an arabesque, wearing a black costume and black cap. Vanity Fair, 1932 | src Conde Nast via getty images
Edward Steichen ~ Harriet Hoctor. Unpublished photograph in a black costume, en pointe, with her arms in front her, 1934 (or 1932?). Vanity Fair | src Condé-Nast store ~ Fine Art