Mediterranean Film Festival Split in cooperation with Photo Club Split and Photo gallery Lang presents an exhibition Hollywood Glamour that starts 5th June 2017 at 20:30h in the gallery of Photo Club Split (Marmontova 5), presenting portraits of Hollywood actors and actresses from the thirties of 20th century.
Photography was extremely important in Hollywood film industry as supportive promotional material of big companies and it was in the twenties of the previous century that special style of glamorous portraits of movie stars was created.
Among photographs in exhbition we can notice Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Anita Page, Nina May, Ita Rina, Rudolf Valentino, etc. The exhibition will be open until 12th July 2017.
Exhibition preface:
'Golden age of film industry belongs to the dynamic period of 20th century as well as to the entire cultural and civilisation surroundings from which arises the myth of a time period that we remember with a certain romantic nostalgia from the point of our postmodern times.
Certainly, modern times also had their dark side that is noted in historical books, photos and documents that we leave aside. We observe rather the brighter side of those times that was founded on myth of progress, Nobel prizes, Bauhaus, Charlie Chaplin, Jazz, American myth and French culture. All that progressive conglomerate was lighten up by unforgettable stars of global mass culture, firstly actors and actresses of at the time glamorous Hollywood and its production in huge movie studios of Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bross, RKO- Radio and others. Films, such as King- Kong, Queen Christina, Modern Times, Captain Bood, Gone with the Wind, Grand Hotel, Shangai Express, Flash Gordon, etc. won over the world including Yugoslavia and cities of Zagreb, Beograd, Ljubljana, Rijeka, Osijek, Sarajevo and Novi Sad. Big and small cinemas were opening everywhere and supportive promotional propaganda served its purpose.
Photography contributed creating the myth in its own concrete way. Hollywood photographers mastered the technique of false reality and they turned the actors into icones of mass culture. In thirties and forties of 20th century photographers like George Hurrel,Clarence Sinclaire Bull, Ruth Harriet Louise, Sngus McBean took amazing portraits of famous people that were sent even to Zagreb as propaganda materials for film premieres.
Today those orginal black and white photos are kept in a private collection in Zagreb and photo gallery Lang ows to these keepers a lot of gratitude, not only for its preservation but also for the possibility of presenting the collection to the public.' Želimir Koščević, program advisor of Lang photo gallery.
