Photographer Profile ~ Toni Frissell

Toni Frissell, (1907 -1988) was an American photographer, known for her fashion photography, World War II photographs, portraits of famous Americans and Europeans, children, and women from all walks of life.

In the beginning of her career, she was an apprentice to Cecil Beaton and was advised by Edward Steichen. Conde Nast himself was instrumental in her start at Vogue. Frissell was one of Vogue's first female photographers. As her career evolved, Frissell was commissioned by several corporations, such as Gulf Oil and Life.

Frissell stretched the boundaries of the privileged world into which she was born and became one of the most innovative photographers of her time. She conceived the fashion photograph as a snapshot, in the manner of Munkacsi, and brought a freshness and particularly American style to the genre. Her battle front photojournalism captured some of the most unforgettably compelling images of World War II.

Lisa Fonssagrives was a Swedish fashion model widely credited as the first supermodel.

Michael Todd (June 22, 1909 - March 22, 1958) was an American theatre and film producer, best known for his 1956 production of Around the World in Eighty Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. He is also well known as the third of Elizabeth Taylor's seven husbands.

Jacqueline Bouvier on her wedding day

John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier on their wedding day, 1953

The Kennedys

Portrait of Winston Churchill, his son Randolph, and his grandson Winston, circa 1950s

Medieval street in Alfama, Lisbon, Portugal, ca. 1946

 Bomb shelter in a London Underground station, during The Blitz, WW2

London 1945

During World War II she was commissioned by the Women's Army Corps to photograph the movements of the Red Cross. Her subsequent photographs are some of the most harrowing of the war and detail it's very real human cost.

Berlin, October 1961

 Lilli Marie Peiser, German actress

 Liz  Taylor, Liza Todd and Mike Todd. Photograph by Toni Frissell, signed and dated 1957

 Toni Frissell with child model

Toni Frissell

Toni Frissell showing kids her camera

Portrait of Toni Frissell

Documentary ~ Shooting War. WWII on Film

This documentary about the war photographers of world war 2 is narrated by Tom Hanks (and his hobo beard). Photographic crews were sent out to document the war and the soldiers who fought so valiantly.  Only 1500 men were entrusted with documenting the entire war. Each crew had a stills photographer armed with a Speed Graphic and camera man armed only with a hand cranked 35mm film camera with one lens. The brave photographic teams carried no weapons.

Flag Raising at Iwo Jima - by Joe Rosenthal, February 1945

The documentary shows little of the stills photographers but very interesting none the less.
 **Warning: Some footage is very graphic**.

James Van Nostrand, 15th Airforce, Italy.

James R. Stephens with the U.S. Army Signal Corps Combat Special Photo Unit at Ormoc, Leyte, the Phillipines on Dec. 7th, 1944.

Bill Rogister, ICCA cofounder, on Moratai in the Pacific with the 13th Air Force.

James L. Lonergan, Coast Guard photographer, stands in the back of a landing craft that is unloading Australian troops in the first assault on Balikpapan, Borneo.

Seimon Paul-Jonel near the Ardennes and 7 kilometers from Manhay, Belgium on a cold winter day.

Tommy Amer of Merrill's Mauraders with Rollieflex and carbine behind enemy lines in Burma.

Gerhard Gronefeld with the German Wehrmacht in 1944

M/Sgt. Jack D. Glasco uses a K-20 aerial camera to photograph China from a B-24.

Jerry Cole, U.S. 8th Air Force, 390th Bombardment Group.

Burr Bennett, Jr. shouldering a K-56 aerial camera.

Warren Boecklaen, combat photographer in the Pacific theater of operations.

TSgt. Al Ciurczak dressed for shooting from an open window at high altitudes