Pioneering Poet of Light: Photographer Florence Vandamm & The Vandamm Studio

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 485676

Photo: The Astaires (Adele & Fred) in The Band Wagon (1931). Florence Vandamm, 1931. NYPL, Library for the Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Division. Image ID: 485676

Wednesday, September 18, 2013 through Friday, February 28, 2014

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Perhaps the most widely published and least understood visual record of 20th century performing arts, the output of the Vandamm Studio has largely been utilized only as illustrative backdrop for the retelling of Broadway history. The prints, contact sheets, and negatives of theater, music and dance in London (1908–1923) and New York (1924–1963) are among the Library for the Performing Arts' most requested treasures. Few are aware that the visionary photographer and portraitist who lent her talent and name to the studio was Florence Vandamm—a woman who opened her first studio in 1908! 

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