Born 1893 in Jersey City, New Jersey, Edwin Bower Hesser became involved in theatre, drawing, sculpture, painting, and commercial photography at the age of 17. He was a prominent photographer who worked in New York and Los Angeles during the golden age of Hollywood and developed his own color photography system known as Hessercolor.
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| Classic beauties taken by Edwin Bower Hesser in the 1920s and 1930s |
Hesser was one of the few portraitist who regularly depicted sitters head on. His penchant for back-lighting so that hair seem lined with light, gave certain of his 1920s sitters a halo or aura. His portraits of movie actresses and stage stars were greatly influential images of glamour from 1925 to 1930.
The bulk of the collection consists of photographic materials such as negatives, prints, transparencies, and periodicals featuring Hesser’s work. The collection also includes paper materials, such as miscellaneous manuscripts, business papers and journals.
Hesser died in 1962. These gorgeous photos are part of his work that he took portraits of classic beauties in the 1930s.
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| Anna May Wong |
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| Barbara Worth |
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| Barbara Worth |
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| Barbara Worth |
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| Barbara Worth |
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| Betty Compson |
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| Carole Lombard |
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| Carole Lombard |
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| Constance Bennett |
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| Corinne Griffith |
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| Dixie Lee |
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| Dolores del Rio |
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| Dorothy Mackaill |
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| Gertrude Olmsted |
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| Gilda Gray |
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| Jean Harlow |
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| Jeanette MacDonald |
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| Joan Crawford |
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| Joan Crawford |
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| Joan Crawford |
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| Jobyna Ralston |
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| Katherine Irving |
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| Lila Lee |
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| Loretta Young |
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| Madge Bellemy |
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| Mae Murray |
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| Mae Murray |
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| Marian Nixon |
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| Marian Nixon |
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| Marian Nixon |
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| Mary Pickford |
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| Mary Pickford |
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| Mary Pickford |
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| Mary Pickford |
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| Theda Bara |