Louise Dahl-Wolfe
(1895 - 1989)
Louise Dahl-Wolfe was born Louise Emma Augusta Dahl, in San Francisco, California on November 19, 1895. In 1914, she studied design at the San Francisco Institute of Art, under Rudolph Schaeffer; and painting with Frank Van Sloan. From 1921 to 1923, she worked designing electric signs. In 1921, she was introduced to
photographer Anne Brigman. Brigman showed her her work and photographic slides of her nudes. Dahl-Wolfe was amazed by the beauty of Brigman photographs and entranced by the possibilities of what a camera could do. This was the beginning of Dahl-Wolfe's career and love for photography.
In 1921, Dahl-Wolfe also met Consuelo Kanaga. Kanaga worked on a San Francisco newspaper, doing feature stories and illustrating them with photographs. Louise and Kanaga became great friends and on her spare time, Louise would help her taking pictures of anything interesting and colorful around the town. In 1923, Dahl-Wolfe went to New York for a year's study of interior decorating; upon her return to California she became assistant to Beth Armstrong of Armstrong, Carter and Kenyon, the top decorators of San Francisco. In 1926, Dahl-Wolfe lost her mother in an automobile accident. She traveled to France and Kairouan, (Holy City) of North Africa with Consuelo Kanaga in 1927. In 1928, Dahl-Wolfe met sculptor Mike Wolfe, her future husband, in Tunisia; she married him that same year.
In 1933, during the great depression, the magazine Woman's Home Companion asked Dahl-Wolfe to photograph for their food pages. She also worked for Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bonwit Teller. An agent took Dahl-Wolfe photographs to Frank Crowninshield, editor of Vanity Fair; which was the cultural magazine of the era. He published a photograph of Dahl-Wolfe's Smoky Mountain neighbor in her twenty-five year-old straw hat; on November of 1933. The photograph was included in the first photographic show, in 1937, at the Museum of Modern Art when Alfred Barr was director. From 1936 to 1938, Louise worked for Carmel Snow, editor of Harper's Bazaar, doing still-life, portraits, and fashion photography. In 1938, she was sent to Hollywood where she photographed many of the stars of the day: Charles Boyer, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery, Hedy Lamarr, Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Marlene Dietrich and many starlets, among them Joan Fontaine. She traveled to North and South America, Europe, Africa, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and elsewhere for photo shoots. Louise Dahl-Wolfe is known for her exquisite color work and "feminine" delicacy of style. In 1937, she participated in the first photography show at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
From 1957 to 1962, Dahl-Wolfe worked for Sports Illustrated. In 1959, Dahl-Wolfe worked for Vogue. In 1960, she went to Rome for Sports Illustrated to report on sports fashions at Olympic Games. In 1961, she decided to retire; moved to Franchtown, New Jersey, and studied book-binding, sewing and French. In 1965, Louise Dahl-Wolfe exhibited her work together with her husband's work, at Country Art Gallery, in Westbury, Long Island. In 1975, she participated in "Women of Photography: A Historical Survey" an exhibition, in the San Francisco Museum of Art.
In 1979, Dahl-Wolfe was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award, shared with Eve Arnold, from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. Louise Dahl-Wolfe died in Allendale, New Jersey in 1989. Her husband Mike Wolfe died in 1985, four years before her. Dahl-Wolfe became one of the foremost female photographers in the fashion industry. She is best known for her use of natural light and painterly use of color. She is credited with having discovered actress Lauren Bacall and for her influence on photographers Irving Penn and Richard Avedon.
