Portraits of the stars of American
cinema are on show at Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni until
September 17.
The exhibition presents 161 photographs taken between the
1920s and the 1960s, featuring the likes of Greta Garbo and
Audrey Hepburn.
The images come from the archives of the John Kobal
Foundation, which has over 4,000 portraits in its possession.
"Hollywood Icons. Fotografie della Fondazione John Kobal"
shows how the stars' success was largely due to the group of set
photographers including Clarence Sinclair Bull, Eugene Robert
Richee, Robert Coburn, William Walling Jr, John Engstead, Elmer
Fryer, Laszlo Willinger, A.L. Whitey Schafer and Ted Allan.
For example, Garbo can be said to have been 'created' on the
set of her first film, Torrent (1926), by photographer Ruth
Harriet Louise.
Similarly, Paramount's head portrait photographer Robert
Richee helped launch the myth of Marlene Dietrich by using
lighting from above to conceal her less-than-perfect features.
The exhibition starts from the legends of silent cinema
Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford before focusing on the
protagonists of the first sound films such as Dietrich, Joan
Crawford, Clark Gable and Cary Grant and then on to the giants
of post-war cinema including Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Marilyn
Monroe, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
It also shows how a film star is 'made' and presents the life
and career of the film historian and collector John Kobal, who
understood the importance of the photographic material produced
in Hollywood.
His pioneering work involved digging up the careers of some
of the masters of photography during Hollywood's golden age,
encouraging the artists to redevelop their forgotten negatives
and organising exhibitions of their work all over the world.
photos: Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, Audrey
Hepburn
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