A Time To Play
Art Kane’s Wide Angle: Discover the visionary behind fashion's evolution who reshaped history with a 21mm lens.
By Condé Nast Archive
By Ivan Shaw
Silk dress, Vogue (1962-11-15) by Art KaneCondé Nast Archive
Art Kane literally reshaped the history of fashion photography when he used a 21mm lens while shooting for the August 15, 1962 issue of Vogue. This super-wide-angle lens allowed Kane to distort his shot and stretch the central image to the edge of the frame.
Floral slip, Vogue (1962-09-15) by Art KaneCondé Nast Archive
This was groundbreaking; fashion photographs had never before been taken with such a distorted perspective, and it required an adjustment of the eye.
Legend has it that Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland initially rejected Kane’s pictures but came to embrace his new point of view.
Kane’s work with extreme wide angles and the layering of images in many ways mirrored the psychedelic experience and sexual awakening that occurred during the Swinging ’60s.
Kane, art director Milton Glaser told writer Peter Doggett, “was the product of a particular moment, a moment of glamour and of a certain style.”
Natalie Wood, Vogue (1962-06-01) by Art KaneCondé Nast Archive
And he didn’t only take pictures, noted Michael Somoroff, the photographer’s friend and disciple, “he lived them.”
Former assistant and now photographer Stephanie Pfriender Stylander recalls about Kane that “for Art it wasn’t about the lighting, it was about the idea; all he needed was an aperture reading and he was off. Boom. The magic of his picture.”
Born Arthur Kanofsky to Ukrainian immigrant parents in the Bronx in 1925, during World War II Kane was assigned (alongside artist Ellsworth Kelly and fashion designer Bill Blass) to the 603rd Camouflage Engineers, known as the Ghost Army.
Their task was to create make-believe tanks, bivouacs, and accompanying radio transmissions and sounds to distract and confuse the Germans.
Kane had already begun studying graphic design at Cooper Hewitt before being drafted, but his work for this special unit helped set the course of what would be a multifaceted career.
Kane returned to Cooper Hewitt after being discharged and eventually graduated in 1950. One of his first jobs out of school was making layouts at Esquire. At just 27, when he was named art director of Seventeen magazine, he soon left to join an ad agency.
During his summer vacation in 1958, Esquire asked the amateur photographer to document the living giants of jazz. The lead image for the story, which captures 57 musicians, has become iconic.
Kane’s photography career kicked off about the same time he started studying with Alexey Brodovitch, the legendary art director, at The New School.
Once again he was in good company; Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Diane Arbus had also been students of Brodovitch. “Brodovitch taught me to be intolerant of mediocrity,” Kane would later say. “He taught me to worship the unknown.”
Kane’s explorations into new photographic territory went beyond distorting lenses, and extended to film itself as the photographer created “sandwiched” frames of film, layering transparencies one on top of another, to create a photo illustration.
This lyrical multiplication of images spoke to Kane’s love of drama. “These sandwiches,” he said, “are poetry to me in order to escape photo realism.” In fact, Kane saw himself as a conceptual artist and he would come to explore creative outlets other than photography.
Kane, who played a number of musical instruments, wrote “Oh What a Face,” a hit song in the late 1940s. He roughed out the lyrics for a Broadway show, and co-wrote a screenplay in the ’60s. Fully realized was, "A Time To Play", a 35mm short, comprising three separate films playing simultaneously on split screens, done for the Montreal Expo in 1967.
Kane’s pursuits were disparate, but his photographic work continues to fascinate. Like a funhouse mirror, it forces the viewer to question reality and challenges them to believe in the unknown.
