David Attie
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David Attie was a prominent American photographer, widely published in magazines and books from the late 1950s until his passing in the 1980s. He was one of the last great proteges of legendary photography teacher and art director
Alexey Brodovitch Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch (also Brodovich; , ; 1898 – April 15, 1971) was a Belarusian-American photographer, designer and instructor who is most famous for his art direction of fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' from 1934 to ...
. Attie worked in a wide range of styles, illustrating everything from novels to magazine and album covers to subway posters, and taking now-iconic portraits of
Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
,
Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
,
Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin ...
, and many others. He also created the first-ever visual depiction of Holly Golightly, the main character in Breakfast at Tiffany's, when he illustrated the Capote novella's first appearance in Esquire Magazine. He was best known in his lifetime for his signature photo montages—an approach he called "multiple-image photography": highly inventive, pre-Photoshop collages that he made by combining negatives in the darkroom. His work has received new attention with a pair of posthumous books: the well-reviewed 2015 publication of his Capote collaboration "Brooklyn: A Personal Memoir, With The Lost Photographs of David Attie," and the 2021 collection of his behind-the-scenes photographs from the very first season of
Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...
, "The Unseen Photos of Street Gang." He has been the subject of several solo exhibits in recent years, including a two-year retrospective at the
Brooklyn Historical Society The Center for Brooklyn History (CBH, formerly known as the Brooklyn Historical Society) is a museum, library, and educational center founded in 1863 that preserves and encourages the study of Brooklyn's 400-year history of Brooklyn, history. Th ...
. One recent critic wrote that even decades later, "his explorations of photomontage remain durably inspired, innovative, and visually dynamic."


Early life and education

Attie grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and graduated from
Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...
, the same alma mater as
Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
, whom Attie later photographed. He briefly attended the
Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. The institute ...
and
Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...
, as well as the
Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...
and the Brodovitch Design Laboratory at
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
. During his Army service, Attie painted pinup-style portraits on the noses of combat planes; two of these are singled out as "gems" of the "nose-art" genre in Edward Young's book on the subject, B-24 Liberator Units of the CBI. Attie then worked as a commercial illustrator, often under the name Dave Attie; he drew Mad Men-era advertisements as well as the covers of magazines and "pulp" novels, some of which have been reprinted in recent books, until he decided to pursue photography.


Photographic career

Attie began his photographic career as a student and protege of famed
Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
art director
Alexey Brodovitch Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch (also Brodovich; , ; 1898 – April 15, 1971) was a Belarusian-American photographer, designer and instructor who is most famous for his art direction of fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' from 1934 to ...
, who had similarly mentored the careers of
Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', '' Vogue'' and '' Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and ...
,
Irving Penn Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clie ...
, Diane Arbus, and Attie's close friend (and fellow Brodovitch classmate) Hiro. When Attie studied under Brodovitch, his legendary "Design Laboratory" course at
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
For Social Research—which Brodovitch used to discover new talent for Bazaar—was held in Avedon's photo studio. According to his Capote book, his success in Brodovitch's famously difficult course was the result of a creative accident: "One night, ewas developing film for his very first class assignment hotos of the original Penn Station when he realized he’d underexposed every single frame. Class was the next day. In other words, he was toast -- and so was his new career. In a desperate panic, he started layering the negatives together, to create moody, impressionistic photo montages. His life must have been flashing before his eyes, and at the wrong exposure. Brodovitch loved the montages. He spent the entire class gushing over them." On the final night of the course, Brodovitch gave Attie his first professional assignment, which was to create a series of photo montages to illustrate
Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics ...
's newest work, Breakfast at Tiffany's, for its first-ever publication Bazaar in 1958. But while Attie completed the montages, Capote began to clash with the publisher of Bazaar, the Hearst Corporation, over the tart language and subject matter of his novella. Alice Morris, the magazine's literary editor, later recounted that Capote agreed to make the changes Hearst wanted "partly because I showed him the layouts... six pages with beautiful, atmospheric photographs." But in the end, Hearst decided that Bazaar could not run Breakfast at Tiffany's anyway; its language and subject matter were still deemed "not suitable," and there was concern that Tiffany's, a major advertiser, would react negatively. When Capote resold the novella to Esquire, he specified that he "would not be interested if
squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Boys served a knight as an attendant, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour. Terminology ''Squire'' ...
did not use Attie's riginal series ofphotographs." He wrote to Esquire fiction editor Rust Hills, "I'm happy that you are using his pictures, as I think they are excellent." But to Capote's disappointment, Esquire used just one full-page image of Attie's, which was the first-ever visual depiction of Holly Golightly (another image of his was later used as the cover of at least one paperback edition of the novella. Attie's work on the project nonetheless launched his career, gaining him further assignments from both Bazaar and Brodovitch. In 2021 Esquire re-ran the novella online, reuniting the text with many of Attie's original images. Attie also went on to shoot portraits of Capote and to illustrate his essay '' Brooklyn Heights: A Personal Memoir'' for Holiday Magazine (later republished many times, including in Attie's recent photo book, Brooklyn: A Personal Memoir, Little Bookroom, 2015). Some of Attie's unused Breakfast at Tiffany's montages were later modified and used to illustrate Bill Manville's 1960 memoir ''Saloon Society, The Diary of a Year Beyond Aspirin'', which was also designed by Brodovitch. Brodovitch biographer Kerry William Purcell has described Attie's work on this book as "an inspired set of experimental images." From that point forward, Attie's commercial work was prolific and wide-ranging – including frequent covers and spreads for ''Vogue'', ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', ''Playboy'', and ''Bazaar''; portraits of everyone from
Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, author, comedian, director and screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades. He was the List of awards and nominations received by Carl Reiner, recipient of many awards and ...
and
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...
to
Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel '' Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison wrote '' Shadow and Act'' (1964), a co ...
and W.E.B. Du Bois and
The Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...
; a variety of album covers (including at least one edition of Sammy Davis Jr. and
Carmen McRae Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretati ...
performing
Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...
); and his own books of photographs, 1977's ''Russian Self-Portraits'', and 1981's ''Portrait: Theory'' (together with
Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealism, photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits ...
,
Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...
and others). Attie collaborated again with Brodovitch on a still-renowned special section of Harper's than ran in October 1959, "Writing in America," which was edited by future
New York Review of Books New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
editor
Robert B. Silvers Robert Benjamin Silvers (December 31, 1929 – March 20, 2017) was an American editor who served as editor of ''The New York Review of Books'' from 1963 to 2017. Raised on Long Island, New York, Silvers graduated from the University of Chicag ...
and used Attie's images to illustrate essays by
Budd Schulberg Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg; March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels '' What Makes Sammy Run?'' (1941) and ''The Harder They ...
,
Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social crit ...
,
Archibald MacLeish Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American poet and writer, who was associated with the modernist school of poetry. MacLeish studied English at Yale University and law at Harvard University. He enlisted in and saw action ...
and others; it has been republished in book form, most recently in 2018, and is now seen as a template for
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...
itself. Attie also did the photos for a 1964 pinup book of
Jayne Mansfield Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, ''Playboy'' Playmate, and sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was known for her numerous publicity stunts and open personal life. He ...
called ''Jayne Mansfield for President'', on which he declined to put his name. As part of the promotion for ''Russian Self-Portraits'', Attie appeared on a March, 1978 episode of the game show
To Tell The Truth ''To Tell the Truth'' is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual ...
. Attie's April 1959 photo-shoot of
Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin ...
for ''Vogue'' magazine, in the apartment at 337 Bleecker Street apartment where she had written ''A Raisin in the Sun'', has become especially widely published. In her award-winning Hansberry biography ''Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry'', Imani Perry writes that in his "gorgeous" images, "Attie captured her intellectual confidence, armor, and remarkable beauty." When
Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...
arrived for his August 10, 1971 portrait session with Attie—a cover shoot for the March, 1972 issue of Amerika Magazine that was originally assigned to
Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', '' Vogue'' and '' Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and ...
, whom Fischer rejected because of his work as a fashion photographer—the eccentric chess master believed he looked unshaven and asked Attie to shave him. Attie obliged, and an 8mm home movie of the proceedings, shot by Attie's wife Dotty, was recently found by the family. In addition to his own work, Attie taught courses at Brodovitch's Design Laboratory in the 1960s, and at both the
School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...
and
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
in the 1970s and '80s. He was also a Specialist-Lecturer at the U.S. Government exhibit "Photography USA" in Bucharest in 1974. While a number of Attie's portraits are in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and his work is in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
, for some years after his passing, his work was not widely seen. In the past handful of years, however, Attie's work has experienced a significant revival. In 2014, ''New York Magazine'' published some of his previously unseen portraits of Capote from 1958, as well as a 1959 portrait of pioneering Brill Building songwriters
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller Leiber and Stoller were an American songwriting and record production duo, consisting of lyricist Jerome Leiber (; April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933). As well as many R&B and pop hits, they wr ...
, which was originally shot for Vogue. Then a small selection of his music-related portraits became available through the online gallery Rock Paper Photo. Then a much broader selection of his work became available through Getty Images, leading to its publication in magazines and books around the world. Attie's work has appeared in a number of recent documentaries as well. His Hansberry portraits appear in
Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
's acclaimed 2015 Nina Simone documentary ''
What Happened, Miss Simone? ''What Happened, Miss Simone?'' is a 2015 American biographical documentary film about Nina Simone directed by Liz Garbus. The film opened the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The screening was followed by a tribute performance by John Legend. The ...
'', in the Oscar-nominated 2016
James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'' has been ranked ...
documentary ''
I Am Not Your Negro ''I Am Not Your Negro'' is a 2016 documentary film and social critique film essay directed by Raoul Peck, based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript '' Remember This House''. Narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, the film explores the his ...
'', and in director Tracy Strain's 2018 American Masters documentary about Hansberry herself, "Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart." His Leiber and Stoller portraits appear in HBO's 2018 documentary “Elvis Presley: The Searcher.” His 1969 studio portraits of
The Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...
appear in Daniel Roher's
Robbie Robertson Jaime Royal Robertson (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. He was the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Robertson was also the ...
documentary '' Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band'', as well as having their own four-page spread in Harvey Kubernik and Ken Kubernik's “The Story of the Band: From Big Pink to The Last Waltz” (Sterling Publishing, 2018). Most significantly, in November 2015, The Little Bookroom published a coffee-table book of Attie's portraits of Capote and his
street photography Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...
taken in connection with Brooklyn Heights: A Personal Memoir, entitled ''Brooklyn: A Personal Memoir, With The Lost Photographs of David Attie.'' The book was well-reviewed in ''The New York Times'' and many other publications in America and around the world;
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
named it one of the eight best art books of 2015 and wrote "when it comes to illustrated works,
his His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, ...
one relatively slim volume stands out... a real gem of a find.” The book was also a finalist for a 2016 Indie Book Award. Its publication and reception have helped to bring considerable attention to Attie's work, including prominent supporters such as Bruce Weber and Mary Louise Parker, who called it an "extraordinary book," and is seen leafing through it in the 2018 indie drama '' Golden Exits''. In December, 2021, Abrams published a book of Attie's behind-the-scenes photos from the very first season of
Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...
(capturing the making of portions of episodes 96, 106, 110, and 112), entitled "The Unseen Photos of Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street." Like Attie's Capote book, this volume was well-reviewed, with one critic writing that "the real star here is Attie's wonderful photography," and praising "the beauty and mystery of the work." In July 2016, the
Brooklyn Historical Society The Center for Brooklyn History (CBH, formerly known as the Brooklyn Historical Society) is a museum, library, and educational center founded in 1863 that preserves and encourages the study of Brooklyn's 400-year history of Brooklyn, history. Th ...
opened a year-and-a-half-long exhibit of Attie's Brooklyn and Capote work, which gained wide press attention. In June 2018, Contact Photo LA opened an exhibit of Attie's long-unseen photo montages. In May 2019, Attie's Russian and American self-portraits were exhibited at the Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery in the West Midlands of England, as part of the BLAST! Photo Festival, along with work he had influenced by artists from that region. In March 2021, Keith de Lellis Gallery in NYC opened a solo exhibit of Attie's work. Keith De Lellis Gallery continues to represent Attie's work. Attie was married to acclaimed feminist painter Dotty Attie, and was a cousin of visual artist Shimon Attie.


References


External links


"A Son’s Sleuthing, a Father’s Archive and Capote’s Vanished Brooklyn, " by Joshua Barone, The New York Times, July 21, 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Attie, David American fashion photographers American fine art photographers Photographers from Brooklyn Erasmus Hall High School alumni People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn