Remembered today principally for her high-fashion photography for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, Toni Frissell (1907-1988) volunteered her photographic services to the American Red Cross, Women's Army Corps, and Eighth Army Air Force during WWII. On their behalf, she produced thousands of images of nurses, front-line soldiers, WACs, African-American airmen, and orphaned children. Frissell's images of the African American fighter pilots of the elite 332nd Fighter Group were instrumental in encouraging positive public attitudes about the fitness of blacks to handle demanding military jobs.

This image can be viewed as Frissell combining her war and fashion shooting. It is Easter Sunday in Italy, 1945. The war may still be going on and this reflective soldier in his sharply pressed dress uniform is putting flowers in his combat helmet. There is no 5th Avenue Easter parade to march in but Frissell and the soldier have done their best to capture the spirit of the day. This is reflective of the range of Frissell's photographic interest and unique perspective in capturing images of any subject that interested her.

Frissell's leap from fashion photography into war reporting echoed the desires of earlier generations of newswomen to move from "soft news" of fashion and society pages into the "hard news" of the front page. On volunteering for the American Red Cross in 1941, Frissell said: "I became so frustrated with fashions that I wanted to prove to myself that I could do a real reporting job." Frissell aggressively pursued wartime assignments at home and abroad, often over her family's objections.

Frissell documented women from all walks of life and in all situations, sometimes using them to comment on the human condition. By the late 1950's Toni Frissell's interest in fashion work was waning and her professional focus shifted to sports photography.

Toni Frissell was born into a wealthy New York City family and took up fashion photography professionally only after she got fired as a caption writer for Vogue. Even though her work spans the spectrum from society photography (amongst others, the Kennedy-Bouvier wedding) to social issues to her war experiences, she is remembered as a fashion photographer. She is also known for the imaginative angles, both physical and metaphorical, from which she covered her subjects. She is also recognized for her stark imagery and as being among the first to take fashion models out of the studio into nature, thus placing an accent on the active woman.

Toni Frissell donated her entire life's work to the Library of Congress. The Toni Frissell Collection consists of 340,000 items covering 1930-69.

Medium :The original is a photographic print

Created/Published : 1945

Creator : Toni Frissell, photographer, 1907-1988

Part of the Toni Frissell Collection housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

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Product #: cph3g04323