The Jazz Age's Forgotten Photographer: Alfred Cheney Johnston

The Internet is rife with information about everything from porn to obscure facts about things you've no interest in. This too may be one of those articles, but frankly, you wouldn't be here if you weren't interested in finding out more about the Ziegfeld Follies principal photographer, Alfred Cheney Johnston.

Virtually forgotten by nearly all but aficionados of the Jazz Age and photography buffs, this brilliant artist and frequenter of the famous Algonquin Roundtable captured the true personality of the famous Flappers and silver screen mavens of the day. His carefully draped nudes were considered salacious and were literally never published in his lifetime.

Born in Mt. Vernon, NY towards the end of the 19th century, Cheney was the son of a prominent banker with extensive and important connections in New York City. One of his father's close friends, Charles Dana Gibson (the creator of the “Gibson Girl”) took a shine to him at an early age and assisted and encouraged him in the development of his creative talents. While originally trained as an illustrator at The Art Students League of New York and the National Academy of Design, his mentor Gibson swayed him into leveraging the new innovations in the field of photography. Along with his own considerable business acumen, he no doubt took advice from Gibson who advised him that there was quite a good living to be made in photographic portraiture.

Shortly after his graduation from the National Academy of Design in 1908, he married fellow classmate Doris Gernon. An accomplished painter in her own right, she assisted her husband in the darkroom by doing all the retouch work on his glass plates and prints.

Though no hard facts survive, the story goes that in 1916 Cheney was approached by Florenz Ziegfeld, founder of the famous Ziegfeld Follies. Ziegfeld has seen examples of his portrait photography and invited the young man to become the official photographer of the Follies. Cheney gladly accepted-with one stipulation-all of his photography was to include his byline. This bold step proved to be a propitious one as it served to bring him other work for both film and traditional advertising agencies throughout his career.

Johnston's photographs ranged from unknown beauties that briefly graced the stage to immortals such as Mary Pickford, Fanny Brice, Louise Brooks and Norma Shearer. His portraits of the Ziegfeld girls became famous overnight, and he continued his successful career with the Follies until the Great Crash of 1929 when the Follies, and consequently his largest account, was hit hard. With the financial devastation and subsequent death of Ziegfeld in 1932, he watched helplessly as a major part of his career came to a close.

In 1939, Cheney and his wife moved to Oxford, Connecticut and converted a barn on 15 acres into a studio where she painted and he continued his photography work. Outside of a spiral bound art book entitled Enchanting Beauty published in 1937, just before their move to Connecticut, little record remains of his work from that period of his life. While the book was praised by critics, friends and fellow artists alike, it was not a financial success and is nearly impossible to find in decent condition.

In 1949, after the War had ended, Cheney opened a studio in New Haven, Ct and another in Seymour, a small town near Oxford. Sadly, both were short lived ventures. The majority of his career from that point on consisted of teaching photography to small groups, and a few lectures and demonstrations with the New England branch of the Professional Photographers of America.

In the 1960’s he attempted to donate his entire catalog and studio to several organizations in both New York and Washington, D.C, but either no one was interested or had the space to store it.

Three years after the death of his longtime wife and creative companion Doris, Alfred Cheney Johnston passed in 1971. Never having had children, he was survived only by his cat and the remains of thousands of portraits of a faded era of American history.

I wish I could include pictures in this blog so that you could see some of his beautiful work, but you’ll just have to be happy with some links. Most of his work is only available on the web, or to those wealthy enough to collect the few originals that have been auctioned.

Links:
http://alfredcheneyjohnston.com/index.htm
http://www.ruthetting.com/album/alfred-cheney-johnston.asp http://broadway.cas.sc.edu/index.php?action=showPhotographer&id=45
http://www.communityzoe.com/articles/johnston.html
http://www.divasthesite.com/Acting_Divas/Gallery/Gallery_Norma_Shearer_16.htm

*Without a doubt, the one of the best references to Mr. Johnston’s work is a wonderful book published in 2006 by Robert Hudovernik. “Jazz Age Beauties; The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston” is not only a wonderfully informative book, it is full of more than 200 publicity stills and photos. * Buy the Book. It's marvelous!!!!!