Ziegfeld Revisited
Inspired by the French Folies Bergere, Florenz Ziegfeld created the Ziegfeld Follies in 1907. The Follies were lavish revues featuring glamourous chorus girls in elaborate costumes. I knew very little about the Ziegfeld Follies when makeup artist Alyria Salazar mentioned that it was her dream to do a Ziegfeld themed shoot. A web search led me to the work of Alfred Cheney Johnston and I was all in for creative vision. Alfred Cheney Johnston was one of the great jazz-age portrait photographers. He is best known for his portraits of Ziegfeld Follies girls and silent film stars during the 1920’s-1930’s. During his 15 years working with Ziegfeld, he photographed hundreds of showgirls including early glamour icons such as Fanny Brice, Billie Burke, Louise Brooks, Ruby Keeler, Hazel Forbes, and Barbara Stanwick. In creating the Ziegfeld Revisited series, we attempted to honor the style of Johnston’s portraits as faithfully as possible. We took great care to emulate the sets, lightin...