"AN INCREDIBLE PERSON"

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 28, 3 February 1938, Page 19

"AN INCREDIBLE PERSON"

m **- FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHER'S FIND

■''■"Ir'have" found-in" Sydney-the most interesting woman, as a type, that I have met in ray recent travels;" said Baron George- de ' Hoyningen-Huene, before he sailed ■ for America in the Monterey, writes the "Sydney Morning Herald." "She is an .incredible person to have discovered here; she is Folies Bergere, Manet, and Mae T^est all rolled into one'., , , • "Her outstanding quality is her amazing vitality. She has a quick wit, and a ready tongue. She is a super-blonde, and possesses a beautiful complexion. She is so dynamic that you do ,not pause to think whether her clothes are smart or not. "Who is-she? . The ,name does not matter.- She does not belong to society, but she.is one of the four,-women I have photographed- in Sydney, and I am- taking, the- negatives of her photographs to Hollywood with me." Baron de Hoyningen-Huene, who is one'of the famous:fashion photographers sof ■ the : world, and whose photor graphs are known to Australians through "Harper's Bazaar," also photographed some frocks 'in .Sydney, and his models were Miss Noreen Hallard, Miss Zara.Gaden, and Miss Doris Casher. He also did some portrait studies of a Sydney photographer, Max Dupain. The visitor had a word of praise for Sydney women. "As.'l have seen them in the city, they are full of vitality, and there are moro good-looking women here than there are >in London, I think. They dress well) and seem to be quite conscious of their own good looks and smartness. The English man is the best dressed in the world; but the English woman is the worst. Australian women are almost as. smart as the American." Baron de Hoyningen-Huene has been travelling for many months, and many 'of the. European women who have reputations for smart dressing he has not seen for some time. But he says that when they visit his studio they always know which is the best way they should be photographed to emphasise their most loyely features. "Mrs. Reggie Fellowes unconsciously poses herself to show herself to the best advantage; she knows which side of.her face is the best. Marlene Dietrich is the same; she always knows which way> the light is coming to make the best portrait of herself. And why not? They are beautiful women, and they want, beautiful pictures'of themselves. "I consider Steichen the most wonderful- portrait .photographer'living, but he does not do much now. He is growing old; he has made plenty of money, and he is much more interested in growing flowers in Connecticut. But he knows as soon as a woman comes to his studio to be photographed just what sort of woman she really is. He sees her almost with an X-ray eye, and no matter how she tries to keep her real character.subdued, it will all come

out, for good or evil, ■in Steichen's photograph.

"He is not like; Cecil Beaton, who photographs all women like porcelain dolls., Cecil is a good friend of mine, and sometimes, I think he'is a better journalist than he is a photographer. He'writes amusingly, he draws well, and he definitely has his .place."