I have just spent a lovely day courtesy of my Mum at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the Hollywood Portraits exhibition. Each photograph pulls you in to the brief moment of time whereby the lighting, angle and pose is just right and the results are a collection of powerful portraits of the most idolised film stars in cinematic history.
My partcicular favourites were those of Louise Brooks, photographed against a black background so that only her face, framed by her famous bob haircut, and a long string of pearls are on display. Also of Rita Hayworth as 'Gilda', apparently one of my great Grandad's 'favourites', and a famous portrait of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers from the film Top Hat.
No sooner than we had mentioned how flawless all the actresses' skin looked, we then came across an information stand about how they air-brushed photographs back then too, this was next to a 'before and after' shot of Joan Crawford showing all the freckles, blemishes and shadows of her face before the perfecting process!
If you find the Golden age of Hollywood as fascinating as I do I recommend visiting the exhibition before it closes on 23rd October.
http://www.npg.org.uk/glamour/index.htm
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