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George Platt Lynes collection

 Collection
Identifier: AG 105

Scope and Contents

The George Platt Lynes collection is made up of photographic materials, artifacts, and press prints.

Series 1 of the George Platt Lynes collection contains 2 ¼” x 2 ¼” negatives with titles by Lynes. Series 2 contains artifacts in their original boxes and sleeves, while series 3 contains press prints of two photographs of interiors by Horst P. Horst.

Dates

  • 1933-1936

Creator

Language of Materials

Material in English

Conditions Governing Access

To access materials from this collection, please contact CCP-RefDesk@email.arizona.edu

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission from the copyright owner (which could be the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates or literary executors) prior to any copyright-protected uses of the collection.

The user agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents, the University of Arizona, Center of Creative Photography, including its officers, employees, and agents, from and against all claims made relating to copyright or other intellectual property infringement

Biographical Note

George Platt Lynes was born April 15, 1907 in East Orange, New Jersey. After graduation from the Berkshire School in Massachusetts, he was sent to Paris to prepare for college. There he met Gertrude Stein, Glenway Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, and others who had a profound influence on him. He began his career as a photographer taking portraits of his friends. In 1932, the art dealer Julien Levy exhibited his work and soon Lynes closed the bookstore he had run since 1927 to open his own studio. Having moved to commercial work for fashion magazines, Lynes was engaged in 1935 to photograph principal dancers of the American Ballet (now New York City Ballet). He eventually moved to Hollywood where he became chief photographer for the Vogue studios, photographing celebrities of every kind. By 1948, financial difficulties led Lynes back to New York. Here he left commercial work entirely and focused on male nudes, a subject he had pursued from his earliest years as a photographer. Lynes continued to struggle financially and twice declared bankruptcy. In early 1955, he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, after which he closed his studio and destroyed many of his prints and negatives. He was careful, however, to donate some of his nudes to the Kinsey Institute, which now holds one of the largest collections of Lynes’s work. After a final trip to Europe, Lynes died on December 6, 1955.

Extent

1.5 Linear Feet

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Abstract

Negatives and occasional prints made by photographer George Platt Lynes, 1933-1936. The bulk of the collection consists of 2 ¼ inch negatives of various subjects including images made in Spain, France, Holland, and Germany, as well as some nudes and examples of his commercial and fashion work. Also included in the collection are original boxes and negative sleeves.

Arrangement

The Collection is arranged into the following series:

  1. Series 1: Negatives, n.d., 1933-1936, 1 box
  2. Series 2: Artifacts, n.d., 1 box
  3. Series 3: Horst P. Horst press prints, n.d., 1 box

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Magda Vasillov and Robert Denison, 2001.

Related Materials

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin holds the Lynes Archive consisting of 5 boxes (133 gelatin silver prints, 1 needlepoint, manuscript materials).

The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana, has a significant collection of nudes.

Processing Information

Finding aid updated by Meghan Jordan in May 2016 and by Tai Huesgen in November 2020.

Title
George Platt Lynes collection 1933-1936
Author
Finding aid created by CCP Archives Staff
Date
© 2020
Description rules
Finding Aid Based On Dacs (Describing Archives: A Content Standard)
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid encoded in English

Repository Details

Part of the Center for Creative Photography Archives Repository

Contact:
1030 N. Olive RD
Tucson Arizona 85721 United States