The following foreword was written by Norman Hall, editor of Photography in 1956. I hope more of you that know little of Andre’s full body of work take the time to study his work. He was not only a photographer he was an artist.
By Norman Hall 1956 Editor of “Photography”
ANDRE DE DIENES is one of the great photographers of these times. He at once a mixture of restlessness and curiosity; he is a person of great sensitivity, a perfectionist who can never quite be satisfied. He has the drive and dedication of an artist and the technique of a master photographer. His success in nude photography—and, I honestly believe, he is the finest exponent of this difficult field in the world—depends on a combination of varied attributes and skill. Certainly, the nude is no subject for the dilettante; but de Dienes is a specialist of many years’ experience.
Elsewhere he tells something of the trouble he takes in the selection of models and location, the choice and arrangement of “props”, the long wait—or rush, as the case may be—to catch the light just as he requires it for his purpose, the mental strain which accompanies the physical effort of a prolonged session. Unintentionally, too, he pays a considerable tribute to the Rolleiflex when he reveals that all the pictures in this most notable selection were made by that versatile little camera.
Characteristically, he attributes no special significance to the camera which is “only a tool, a small instrument which instantly obeys my command to snap the picture when I see it”. Despite this apparent disregard for the mechanics of photography, de dienes is a superb technician. That will be evident to all photographers who turn over the pages of this book. For them there is a special interest, quite apart from the beauty of the models and the ingenuity of treatment. There is a consistent brilliance in the print quality of de Dienes’ work and this seems to persist through any process of reproduction.
But, more than technical competence, which is not rare among photographers, de Dienes has that gift of achieving perfect rapport with his model and this is a quality which cannot easily be explained or expressed in terms for inclusion with technical data. He has a profound reverence for the undraped female form; this, and a belief in the power of the camera. He has told me of his great desire to promote photography as an art, equal in importance with sculpture, painting, and music, and I know him well enough to believe implicitly in his sincerity. In his credo, printed here, he says much the same thing and reiterates his belief in photograph “as a medium in its own right”.Somehow, though, I feel that the measure of his creative urge goes further than the photographic medium, that the camera method is just too facile for his peace of mind. I believe he would be happier with a mallet and a chisel, lustily hewing his tribute to the beauty of form from the solid stone. This has been my guess and it is interesting to find he has written here, “Though I have absolutely no talent for sculpture, I sometimes marvel at a new pose and wish the model would turn to bronze or purest marble just as I see her”.
He deplores the misconstruction of purpose which frequently reveals itself in the attitude of some people towards nude photography. While paintings of the nude are treasured in museums and galleries, and sculpture of the undraped body is found and accepted in public places, photographers of the nude are frequently liable to suspicion from irresponsible sources.
De Dienes, by his sincere respect for the human body, his skill in matters of lighting and arrangement and his great gift for obtaining the full co-operation of his models, proves that the camera can be used with sympathy and dignity. Moreover, he does this without minimizing the wholesome sensuality of the subject.
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Some say you can judge a man by the way he furnishes his home. If that’s true, photographer Andre de dienes is just about the most interesting guy ever heard tell about. Indeed, he has a model on the sun porch, one in the bed, and one each on the two stone tables in the living room.
