Alfred Cheney Johnston started experimenting with photography by taking portraits of friends and fellow students attending his art classes. At this time artists who could paint portraits in oil were making a good living, particularly European artists. It's likely that Johnston's astute mentor also advised him that there was a good living to be made specializing in photographic portraiture. Alfred applied the knowledge and principles he'd absorbed from his painting classes to his portrait photography. Johnston's photographs were indeed very painterly and throughout his life many would compare his photographic technique to that of fine art painting.

Johnston graduated from the Academy in 1908 and married fellow classmate Doris Gernon in 1909. For the next seven years Cheney continued to experiment with his photography while Doris, an accomplished painter was known to do the artistic darkroom retouch work on Cheney's glass plates and prints.

Around 1916 Alfred Cheney Johnston's photography was brought to the attention of Florenz Ziegfeld, founder of the Ziegfeld Follies. After seeing examples of his portrait photography, Ziegfeld invited the young Johnston to become official photographer for the Follies. Cheney had one stipulation to accepting Ziegfeld's offer. He required that his name be included as a byline below every one of his photographs. Again it's quite possible that Charles Dana Gibson advised him on this. It proved to be an excellent business move because Johnston's byline brought him other commercial work for film companies and advertising agencies.

Ziegfeld promoted his shows as "Glorifying the American Girl" and it was Johnston's job to capture Ziegfeld's vision on film. Johnston's portraits of Ziegfeld's girls became world famous. Just as his mentor Charles Dana Gibson created the "Gibson Girl", Johnston went on to create the "Ziegfeld Girl" which became the next standard of beauty for a new generation of Americans. continue...

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