American mid-century photographer William Helburn created “Limo'' for an advertising campaign, with model Joanna McCormick seated in a Cadillac Limousine, in 1951 in New York City.
Helburn often focused on one or two colors, both warm and cool tones, to make a picture pop. “Limo'' is a classic example: Helburn focuses on bold red in this case. Surrounded by black on black, men in black suits in a black limo, the model Joanna McCormick draws everyone’s attention to the color red - the sheer red floral dress, the red purse, and the model’s red lipstick.
Limo is a large archival pigment print | sheet size: 36" x 44" | image size: 30" x 40" signed by the estate and numbered. Printed: 2021.
The photograph is accompanied by an estate label, signed by the estate (sons) Hardy and William Helburn.
Literature:
William Helburn: Seventh and Madison, London, 2014, p.46-47.
Provenance: Private Collector
***
Artist’s Bio:
A contemporary of Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Lillian Bassman and Horst P. Horst, William Helburn (1924-2020) hailed from New York City. After serving in the Pacific in World War II, Helburn was inspired to become a fashion photographer. Helburn would go on to study with Harper's Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch at his Design Workshop. This led to a 10-page assignment for Bazaar that helped launch his career. Helburn published thousands of images and won dozens of awards for his fashion and advertising photography. A book on his photography “William Helburn –Seventh and Madison" was published in 2014. "Fashion photography is, singularly, the most creative form of photography there is," said Helburn on the art of fashion.
***
Available at 99Prints NYC an online art marketplace for today’s collector of contemporary art, works on paper, original and limited edition photography. Based in New York City, 99Prints ships worldwide.