FROM THE BOOK
Film Noir Portraits by Paul Duncan and Tony Nourmand collects some of the most innovative and striking publicity photographs taken during the 1940s heyday of the genre. Here, in an extract from the introduction, film historian Duncan explains why movie studios commissioned such stunning still images.
Each major studio employed a number of still photographers situated in their own department where they could develop the film and “work” on the negatives (removing spots, freckles and wrinkles) to make the best prints so that the stars were as glamorous as possible.
It was common for several photographers to work on the same movie, as schedules dictated.
Over the course of a production, a few hundred or a few thousand images would be captured – depending upon the budget – and an approved selection would be used for promotional purposes in newspapers and magazines, as well as the basis for posters and lobby cards.
If the production was lucky (or had a good PR department), a big magazine or newspaper, like Life, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, or The New York Times, would send a photographer to do a feature.
These photographers – like Gjon Mili, John Florea, Walter Sanders, Peter Stackpole, and Jack Birns – were photojournalists, able to quickly connect with their subjects and capture the necessary images. Their candid set photos or special shoots with the stars would become fixed in the public imagination in such a way that readers would be intrigued or enticed to go watch the movie. However, the movie also needed to be marketed in the traditional manner, so the actors got into costume, make-up and character, and visited the still department for portraits.
The still men were masters of light, and these photo shoots under controlled conditions allowed them to exercise their craft to the utmost degree. The requirement was that each of the stars had single portraits taken, usually against a blank background – the female stars would have singles with multiple costumes – with the actor sometimes looking directly into the camera. Nobody looks at the camera on a movie set, so these portraits gave the viewer a direct connection to the stars.