Blenheim Palace Shoot

VIEW FROM MY CAMERA
A PHOTOBIOGRAPHY OF TONI FRISSELL
BY BARBARA L. MICHAELS

Using the format of a biography—Toni Frissell's life as shown through the photographs she has taken —the Hallmark Gallery has unified a varied photographic career. The pictures, some of which have appeared in *Life*, *Vogue* and *Harper's Bazaar*, are grouped to show the range of her interests, from fashion photography (where she was the first to work outdoors and on location with models)

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Return from a Mission Over Germany

All photographs Copyright © Toni Frissell

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categories, are some of the most pleasant and rewarding people I've met . . . anywhere! As our mutual problems are resolved, I hope to spend many a ten o'clock coffee break with them . . . after we've gotten that first shot.

View From My Camera

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to reportage of World War II, from posed portraits of the great to unsuspected photographs of unknown persons. She has photographed outdoor life: skiing, hunting and ranch life. She has shown understanding of children in pictures of her own children, grandchildren and young friends and in the poignant images of war orphans during World War II.

Her photographs are accompanied by smaller pictures of her at work taken by other photographers, who, unfortunately, are not identified.

Miss Frissell's approach is straightforward and journalistic. She does not use unusual camera angles or emphasize textures and shapes for their own sakes. Most of the photos are black and white. There are a number of elegant color prints. One of these shows her imposing country house through a silhouette of leaves, and two memorable portraits of "grandes dames" capture the poise and bearing of these old women against the luxurious backgrounds of their homes.

"My favorite subject is people. Catching them unawares, at the one precise moment that never returns is to me the most rewarding of all," Miss Frissell writes in the commentary accompanying the photos. She excells in creating portraits of nameless people with memorable faces—the old French washerwoman cheerily wringing her hands at an outdoor washing place, the unshaven but proud old Vermont farmer. A series of photos showing people eating is engrossing; compare the boy and old man eating fish out of a pot on a Neapolitan wharf with two old women having tea at an outdoor cafe in West Berlin—proper but dowdy in black hats. Then consider the Parisian gourmet cutting cheese with great concentration and precision.

I would have liked to have seen more emphasis on these perceptive pictures of people and less on pictures shown for their sentimental appeal. For instance, one wall is devoted to Miss Frissell's coverage of John F. Kennedy's wedding. Thoroughly competent pictures, but their interest comes more from their subject than from their photographic merit. A large picture of a boy and a girl strolling hand in hand on a quai by the Seine is shown in a prominent place. This is a pretty picture, but haven't we seen similar ones many times before? Why not have given the place of honor to, for instance, the *old* man and woman sitting under a tree on a bench alongside a Paris boulevard?

Unfortunately the Hallmark Gallery distracts viewers from a worthwhile exhibition with piped-in music and a splashing decorative fountain. The purple walls used for this exhibition and the Gallery's red carpet were a bit overpowering for Miss Frissell's fine and gentle pictures.

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