Carl Fischer (photographer): Difference between revisions
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'''Carl Fischer '''was an American art director and [[Autodidacticism|autodidact]] magazine photographer. |
'''Carl Fischer '''was an American art director and [[Autodidacticism|autodidact]] magazine photographer. |
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Fischer took painting at Cooper Union but majored in graphic design and was an art director for six years before receiving a Fulbright Scholarship. He went to England where he studied book design and typography, and used the darkroom, teaching himself the medium from library books.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Belth |first=Alex |date=14 April 2023 |title=How Carl Fischer Helped Define the Esquire Look: The legendary photographer is most famous for his iconic covers, but the breadth of his work goes much deeper. |journal=Esquire}}</ref> |
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== ''Esquire'' == |
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Carl Fischer was formerly an advertising art director who began photographing for ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine when [[Harold Hayes]] became its editor in chief in 1963. Working with the magazine's creative consultant [[George Lois]] they devised what became amongst the most famous and provocative ''Esquire'' covers of the 1960s and early ’70s; [[Muhammad Ali]] as a martyred St Sebastian<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Castelli |first=Elizabeth A. |date=2006 |title=The Ambivalent Legacy of Violence and Victimhood: Using Early Christian Martyrs to Think With |journal=Spiritus |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=6 |pages=1-24}}</ref> and [[Andy Warhol]] drowning in a giant can of tomato soup.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lois |first=George |title=George Lois on His Creation of the Big Idea.. |publisher=Editions Assouline |year=2008}}</ref> By 1968 all of the covers for that year featured his photographs. His studio was a townhouse on East Eighty-third Street, New York City, where he lived.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=October 2015 |title=Carl Fischer |journal=Esquire |volume=164 |issue=3 |pages=108}}</ref> |
Carl Fischer was formerly an advertising art director who began photographing for ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine when [[Harold Hayes]] became its editor in chief in 1963. Working with the magazine's creative consultant [[George Lois]] they devised what became amongst the most famous and provocative ''Esquire'' covers of the 1960s and early ’70s; [[Muhammad Ali]] as a martyred St Sebastian<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Castelli |first=Elizabeth A. |date=2006 |title=The Ambivalent Legacy of Violence and Victimhood: Using Early Christian Martyrs to Think With |journal=Spiritus |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=6 |pages=1-24}}</ref> and [[Andy Warhol]] drowning in a giant can of tomato soup.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lois |first=George |title=George Lois on His Creation of the Big Idea.. |publisher=Editions Assouline |year=2008}}</ref> By 1968 all of the covers for that year featured his photographs. His studio was a townhouse on East Eighty-third Street, New York City, where he lived.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=October 2015 |title=Carl Fischer |journal=Esquire |volume=164 |issue=3 |pages=108}}</ref> |
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<blockquote>One of the first assignments Hayes gave me was a series of portraits of Southern segregationists. He said, 'Look, we don't want to be seen as editorializing. We want to be fair and we want to give their point of view, so don't use your goddamn wide-angle lens.' He thought that lens would make them look bad, so while I didn't use it, I did make some little changes that I think made [the segregationists] look as ugly as we all thought they were.</blockquote> |
<blockquote>One of the first assignments Hayes gave me was a series of portraits of Southern segregationists. He said, 'Look, we don't want to be seen as editorializing. We want to be fair and we want to give their point of view, so don't use your goddamn wide-angle lens.' He thought that lens would make them look bad, so while I didn't use it, I did make some little changes that I think made [the segregationists] look as ugly as we all thought they were.</blockquote> |
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Among his other subjects were movie stars and |
Among his other subjects were movie stars, artists and athletes, but the covers were often politically charged, and included war criminal [[William Calley]] surrounded by Vietnamese children or, during the peak of the [[civil rights movement]], [[Sonny Liston]] as an angry black [[Santa Claus]]. |
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After collaborating through the 1960s he and Lois, disputing who should be credited with the covers, when they're separate ways in the early 1970s.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lois |first=George |title=George Lois on His Creation of the Big Idea.. |publisher=Editions Assouline |year=2008}}</ref> After Hayes left ''Esquire'' in 1973, Fischer gradually ceased working for the magazine. |
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Fischer died on April 7 2023 aged 98. |
Fischer died on April 7 2023 aged 98. |
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References |
== References == |
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{{reflist}} |
{{reflist}} |
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Revision as of 23:10, 18 April 2023
Carl Fischer was an American art director and autodidact magazine photographer.
Fischer took painting at Cooper Union but majored in graphic design and was an art director for six years before receiving a Fulbright Scholarship. He went to England where he studied book design and typography, and used the darkroom, teaching himself the medium from library books.[1]
Esquire
Carl Fischer was formerly an advertising art director who began photographing for Esquire magazine when Harold Hayes became its editor in chief in 1963. Working with the magazine's creative consultant George Lois they devised what became amongst the most famous and provocative Esquire covers of the 1960s and early ’70s; Muhammad Ali as a martyred St Sebastian[2] and Andy Warhol drowning in a giant can of tomato soup.[3] By 1968 all of the covers for that year featured his photographs. His studio was a townhouse on East Eighty-third Street, New York City, where he lived.[4]
Interviewed by the magazine in 2015 he recalled;
One of the first assignments Hayes gave me was a series of portraits of Southern segregationists. He said, 'Look, we don't want to be seen as editorializing. We want to be fair and we want to give their point of view, so don't use your goddamn wide-angle lens.' He thought that lens would make them look bad, so while I didn't use it, I did make some little changes that I think made [the segregationists] look as ugly as we all thought they were.
Among his other subjects were movie stars, artists and athletes, but the covers were often politically charged, and included war criminal William Calley surrounded by Vietnamese children or, during the peak of the civil rights movement, Sonny Liston as an angry black Santa Claus.
After collaborating through the 1960s he and Lois, disputing who should be credited with the covers, when they're separate ways in the early 1970s.[3] After Hayes left Esquire in 1973, Fischer gradually ceased working for the magazine.
Fischer died on April 7 2023 aged 98.
References
- ^ Belth, Alex (14 April 2023). "How Carl Fischer Helped Define the Esquire Look: The legendary photographer is most famous for his iconic covers, but the breadth of his work goes much deeper". Esquire.
- ^ Castelli, Elizabeth A. (2006). "The Ambivalent Legacy of Violence and Victimhood: Using Early Christian Martyrs to Think With". Spiritus. 6. The Johns Hopkins University Press: 1–24.
- ^ a b Lois, George (2008). George Lois on His Creation of the Big Idea. Editions Assouline.
- ^ "Carl Fischer". Esquire. 164 (3): 108. October 2015.