Strike a pose. Before there was vogueing Editta Sherman made glamor at Carnegie Hall. Studio 1208: Camera Studies by Editta Sherman includes more than 90 of Sherman’s portraits, photographs of Sherman throughout her career, and a brief and illuminating biography celebrating an artist who was the 2013 Distinguished Photographer award recipient of Women in Photography International. Studio 1208 has been reprinted on the occasion of the exhibition The Duchess of Carnegie Hall: Photographs by Editta Sherman, on view at the New-York Historical Society through October 15, 2017.
Editta Sherman (1913-2013) was dubbed the "Duchess of Carnegie Hall," sharing her dynamic personality and natural beauty with artists, musicians, and actors alike. Art was a business and a calling for Sherman, and after her husband’s death in 1954, she worked tirelessly to maintain the portrait photography business that they had established. Working—and living—in one of the artist studios above Carnegie Hall for more than 60 years, Sherman charmed her celebrity clients with a vivacity and warmth that was reflected in the portraits of her subjects. Her creativity carried over to other avenues, serving as the historically clad muse to photographer Bill Cunningham in his Facades project and performing “The Dying Swan” ballet for Andy Warhol, among other projects.
