George Platt Lynes

George Platt Lynes was born on April 15, 1907 in East Orange, New Jersey. He went to Paris in 1925 where he then met artists such as Réne Crevel, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, and others. When he returned to the U.S. he contemplated a literary career and opened a bookstore in Englewood, New Jersey in 1927. He first became interested in photography with only the desire to photograph his friends and display them in his bookstore. He then returned to France with friends and over the next several years establish himself as a photographer. He began receiving commissions from Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, Vogue, and other publications. In 1946, he became head of Vogue magazine’s west coast studio in Los Angeles and photographed celebrities such as Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russel, Gloria Swanson, Orson Welles. In 1948, Lynes returned to New York to focus on his own private interests, male nudes and documenting the New York City Ballet. He became acquainted with Dr. Alfred Kinsey, who was an influential researcher on human sexuality. Lynes died in 1955, leaving a substantial body of nudes and homoerotic photographic works to the Kinsey Institute.

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George Platt Lynes is featured in Edition: The Best of the Met