« Photography: A Look at Advertising as Art »

Anton Bruehl. Knitting, ca. 1934. 1934 Art and Industry Exhibition Photograph Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections. I was in Boston recently to take our son to look at colleges. While there, a friend of mine invited me to take a look at a photo exhibit on display at the Harvard Business School’s Baker Library/Bloomberg Center. This unique and surprisingly compelling exhibition, titled The High Art of Photographic Advertising: The 1934 National Alliance of Art and Industry Exhibition, is on display at Harvard through Oct. 9. I recommend checking it out if you find yourself in Cambridge MA with some extra time on your hands.

If you asked me prior to viewing this exhibit who was the most influential photographer featured in 20^th century advertising, my instant reaction would have been Annie Leibovitz. Her distinctive portrait work has been featured in a number of award-winning international advertising campaigns for clients as diverse as American Express, Louis Vuitton and the whimsical "Got Milk" ads. Her photography has been featured in award-winning ads all through my advertising career... from my impressionable first years in the mid 1980s through today. The provocative and artistic work of Leibovitz taught me all I needed to know about the power of photography in advertising. Or, so I thought, until I stopped by the Harvard exhibit.

The High Art of Photographic Advertising exhibit features 125 of 250 works originally displayed in a 1934 exhibit in New York City sponsored by the National Alliance of Art and Industry and Photographic Illustrators. Inc. Most of the featured photos are the work of unknown studio photographers of the era. A few notable exceptions include ads featuring the work of Margaret Bourke-White and Anton Bruehl. What I didn’t expect to see in this exhibit was the level of photographic experimentation used in the ads (commercial “art” photography was still a relatively new concept in the early 1930s). These early commercial photographers were literally inventing the craft, utilizing surreal lighting effects, multiple exposures and highly stylized images of depression era men and women. The people in these ads wear glitzy formal wear, have butlers and chauffeurs, and seem in endless pursuit of social stimulation and leisure activities.

As a whole, the exhibit celebrates and age of photographic discovery with a subtext of unwavering American spirit (hence the undepression-like images). You can see the very early attempts at techniques that Leibovitz and other commercial photographers would use to such great effect decades later. Here are a few of my favorite images from the show:

John Paul Pennebaker. Sealed Power Piston Rings, ca. 1934. 1934 Art and Industry Exhibition Photograph Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections.Alfredo Valente. Advertisement for Cigarettes, ca. 1934. 1934 Art and Industry Exhibition Photograph Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections.Nickolas Muray, Lucky Strike Girl, ca. 1934. © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives . 1934 Art and Industry Exhibition Photograph Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections. Margaret Bourke-White. George Washington Bridge, ca. 1934. 1934 Art and Industry Exhibition Photograph Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections. Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images