Louise Dahl-Wolfe miscellaneous acquisitions collection

Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895-1989) was a photographer known for her fashion photography and portraiture. She was born in 1895 in Alameda, California to Norwegian parents and studied at the San Francisco Institute of Art. While traveling in Europe in 1927 with the photographer Consuelo Kanaga, she met her future husband, Meyer (Mike) Wolfe. Wolfe was a sculptor with whom she collaborated on various projects; one example of their collaboration is the Chinese calligraphy background, published in Harper’s Bazaar, April, 1958. Dahl-Wolfe produced her first published photograph in 1932, after which she moved with her husband to New York City where she opened a photography studio and shot advertising and fashion photographs as a freelance photographer.

In 1938 Dahl-Wolf was hired at Harper’s Bazaar as a staff fashion photographer in 1938. During her tenure with the magazine Dahl-Wolfe was instrumental in setting the tone for fashion images that have had wide-ranging influence, from fashion photography to art, clothing styles and music choreography. Under the editorship of Carmel Snow and Diana Vreeland, Dahl-Wolfe produced portraits of the rich and famous for Harper’s that continue to be widely reproduced today. She produced both black-and-white and color work and was well-known for her use of natural lighting and for shooting on location. After leaving Harper’s Bazaar in 1958, Dahl-Wolfe returned to freelance photography and produced work for both Vogue and Sports Illustrated, until retiring in 1960. Dahl-Wolfe later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and died in New Jersey in 1989 of pneumonia.