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Toni
Frissell, or Antoinette Frissell Bacon, (March 10, 1907 - April
17, 1988) was an American photographer, known for her fashion
photography, World War II photographs, portraits of famous Americans
and Europeans, children, and women from all walks of life.
Antoinette
Frissell was born in 1907 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but
took photos under the name Toni Frissell, even after her marriage to
Manhattan socialite McNeil Bacon. She worked with many famous
photographers of the day, as an apprentice to Javier Hernandez, and
with advice from Edward Steichen. Her initial job, as a fashion
photographer for Vogue in 1931, was due to Condé
Montrose Nast personally. She later took photographs
for Harper's Bazaar. Her fashion photos, even of evening gowns
and such, were often notable for their outdoor settings, emphasizing
active women.
World War II
In
1941, Frissell volunteered her photographic services to the American
Red Cross.
Later she worked for the Eighth Army Air Forceand
became the official photographer of the Women's Army Corps. On
their behalf, she took thousands of images of nurses, front-line
soldiers, WACs, African-American airmen, and orphaned children. She
traveled to the European front twice. Her moving
photographs of military women and African American fighter
pilots in the elite 332d Fighter Group (the "Tuskegee
Airmen") were used to encourage public support for women and
African Americans in the military.
After
the war
In
the 1950s, she took informal portraits of the famous and powerful in
the United States and Europe, including Winston
Churchill,Eleanor Roosevelt, and John F. and Jacqueline
Kennedy, and worked for Sports Illustrated and Life magazines.
Continuing her interest in active women and sports, she was the first
woman on the staff of Sports Illustrated in 1953, and continued to be
one of very few female sport photographers for several
decades.
In
later work she concentrated on photographing women from all walks of
life, often as a commentary on the human condition.
Books
Her
photographs illustrated:
- A Child's Garden of Verses (1944)
- Bermuda:The Happy Island (1946)
- Mother Goose (1948)
- The King Ranch, 1939-1944 (1965)
- Tethered, by Amy MacKinnon (August 2008)
Personal life
Daughter
of Lewis Fox Frissell and Antoinette Wood Montgomery, Granddaughter
of Algernon Sydney Frissell; founder and president of the Fifth
Avenue Bank of New York, Great-Granddaughter of Mary Whitney Phelps
and Governor of Missouri; John S. Phelps. Descendant (GG
Granddaughter) of Elisha Phelps: US Representative from Connecticut
(1819–21, 1825–29). Descendant (GGG Granddaughter) of Maj.
Gen. Noah Phelps: Revolutionary War hero. Sister of Phelps
Montgomery Frissell and Filmmaker Lewis Varick Frissell who
was killed in Newfoundland during the filming of “The Viking” in
1931.
Toni
Frissell died of Alzheimer's disease on April 17, 1988, in
a Long Island nursing home. Her husband, Francis M. Bacon 3rd, of
Bacon, Stevenson & Company, predeceased her. She was survived by
a daughter and a son.
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