Fashion and portrait photographer, Frances McLaughlin-Gill, was one of the first female photographers to work for major fashion magazines in the 1940s and 1950s. Beginning her career at Vogue as a staff photographer, she quickly gained a reputation for her sophisticated fashion photography and technical precision. Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Mademoiselle.
Frances McLaughlin-Gill Prints
Artist Biography
McLaughlin-Gill (1919 – 2014) was born in New York City and grew up in a creative family: her father was a painter and her mother was a musician. She studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she met her future husband, photographer Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee. The couple worked together on various assignments and eventually married in 1947.
McLaughlin-Gill began her photography career in the 1940s, when she was hired by Vogue, becoming one of the magazine’s most celebrated fashion photographers. She became known for her portrait photography, photographic some of the most celebrated cultural and society figure of the day, including Salvador Dalí, Truman Capote, and Gloria Vanderbilt.
In addition to her work in photography, McLaughlin-Gill was also an accomplished artist and designer. She created a line of scarves and textiles that were sold in high-end department stores, and she was known for her intricate and colourful embroidery work. McLaughlin-Gill’s career spanned several decades, and she continued to work as a photographer and designer into her 80s.
She received numerous awards and honours for her contributions to the field of photography, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Media Photographers in 2003. McLaughlin-Gill died in 2014 at the age of 95.
© Estate of Frances McLaughlin-Gill, Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
