Showgirls: A Portfolio

In 1917, after studying painting at the National Academy of Design in New York City, Alfred Cheney Johnston became an in-house photographer for Florenz Ziegfeld’s infamously ribald revue—the Ziegfeld Follies. Johnston’s classical training influenced the photographs he took of the Ziegfeld showgirls. He drenched the (mostly naked) gals in light and posed them in ways that evoked fine art portraiture. When Vanity Fair featured Johnston’s work in its pages, he became heralded as the era’s premier chronicler of female beauty. Here’s a sampling of Johnston’s stunning work.

Alice Wilkie, ca. 1925

 

Dolores Costello, ca. 1923

 

Virginia Biddle, ca. 1927

 

Anna Lee Peterson, ca. 1928

 

Dorothy Flood, ca. 1920

 

Katherine Moylan, ca. 1928

 

Clara Bow, ca. 1925

 

Ruby Keeler, ca. 1925