Karl F. Struss

Nationality

American

Lifetime

1886-1981

Biography

Karl F. Struss American, 1886-1981 Born and raised in New York City, Karl Fischer Struss was an important early pictorialist and a cofounder of the Pictorial Photographers of America. He was also a member of the Photo-Secession, publishing his works in Camera Work (April 1912), and a photographer for publications such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Harper's Bazaar. A student of Clarence H. White, Struss was influenced by both White and Alvin Langdon Coburn. He developed his own style, however, an elegant synthesis of random qualities with formal composition. Struss experimented with various technical processes. He developed multiple platinum printing to enhance the depth of shadows and in 1909 designed the Struss Pictorial lens, which entered commercial production in 1915. Shortly after the First World War, Struss moved to Hollywood, where he became a successful cinematographer. He worked first for Cecil B. De Mille and later freelanced for both independent and major studios until his retirement in 1970. Among his film credits are Ben Hur (1926), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), and the Chaplin classics The Great Dictator (1940) and Limelight (1952). In 1928 Struss received an Academy Award for his work on De Mille's film Sunrise. T.W.F.

Artworks

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Camera Work

A. Horsley Hinton

Alfred Stieglitz

Alice M. Boughton

Alvin Langdon Coburn

Anne W. Brigman

Arthur Allen Lewis

Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore

Baron Adolph de Meyer

C. Yarnall Abbott

Clarence H. White

David Octavius Hill

E.M. Bane

Edward Steichen

Ema Spencer

Eva Watson-Schutze

F. Benedict Herzog

Francis Bruguière

Frank Eugene

Frederick H. Evans

Frederick H. Pratt

George Davison

George Bernard Shaw

George H. Seeley

Gertrude Käsebier

Guido Rey

Hans Watzek

Harold Mortimer-Lamb

Harry Rubincam

Heinrich Kuehn

Herbert G. French

Hugo Henneberg

J. Craig Annan

John Francis Strauss

Joseph T. Keiley

Julia Margaret Cameron

Karl F. Struss

Marshall R. Kernochan

Oskar Hofmeister

Paul Strand

Paul B. Haviland

Prescott Adamson

René Le Bègue

Robert Adamson

Robert Demachy

Sarah C. Sears

Theodor Hofmeister

W.W. Renwick

William B. Dyer

William B. Post

William E. Wilmerding