The Command to Look

William Mortensen was an American artist and photographer, born in 1897 and who died in 1965. He was part of a group of photographers in the first part of the twentieth century called the Pictorialists, known for their romantic subject matter and alternative photographic processes. Mortensen didn’t fit easily into that group, however. His imagery was highly manipulated and not particularly romantic—instead he created compositions exploring themes of the grotesque and the erotic.

From the late 1920s until the 1940s, Mortensen was one of the best-known and most successful photographers in the United States. He had begun his artistic life as a painter and etcher and carried that training over to his photographic work, which he began in the mid 1920s. He was known for his outré subject matter that had an unusual look—it is difficult to tell, at first glance, if his images are etchings, drawings, or photographs. This work made him well regarded by many but reviled by a group of photographers called the f.64 group, also known as “straight photographers.” This group consisted, in part, of Ansel Adams, and Edward Weston.

Mortensen, together with his coauthor George Dunham, published 9 books and approximately 100 articles on his concepts and processes. His books and articles were extremely popular. For the most part these were published by Camera Craft, but he was also a regular contributor to various other major magazines of the time such as Popular Photography.

George Dunham was born in 1896 in Riverside County, California. He went on to Harvard University to pursue graduate work in English and Music. At Harvard, Dunham attended the influential “47 Workshop” class taught by George Pierce Baker. Dunham returned to the seaside art colony then forming in Laguna Beach, California in 1923.

In the years that followed Dunham became an actor and director of the Community Players of Laguna Beach. Dunham was also an accomplished writer, who had provided articles on theater to the local newspaper.

In 1931 after leaving the Community Players, Dunham met and became friends with photographer and teacher William Mortensen. Mortensen had arrived in Laguna Beach in 1931 and opened the William Mortensen School of Photography. Dunham began posing for Mortensen in 1932, which yielded one of Mortensen’s most well known photographs, Human Relations 1932. Dunham also became the literary voice of Mortensen from 1933 through the late 1950s writing all of the books and articles attributed to that famous photographer.

Theirs was a literary collaboration, with Mortensen outlining the ideas and thrust of the book or article and Dunham providing the words and wit. However, Dunham’s contribution to Mortensen’s literary success was kept a secret from all but a few in the photography world and wasn’t revealed until the 3rd printing of How to Pose the Model. Dunham was finally recognized as coauthor of all of Mortensen’s literary works.

Their collaboration, but not their friendship, ended in the late 1950s with the last of the articles. Dunham died of cancer in 1976.

Larry Lytle is a commercial and fine art photographer in Los Angeles, and lecturer in Art at California State University Channel Islands. His writings have appeared in William Mortensen: A Revival and Original Sources: Art and Archive at the Center for Creative Photography (both published by the CCP), Black & White Magazine, Laguna Life, The Laguna Beach Independent, and The Scream.

Michael Moynihan is the co-author, with Didrik Søderlind, of the award-winning music and crime book Lords of Chaos (Feral House, 2003) and has contributed essays to various anthologies (such as Apocalypse Culture II) and scholarly encyclopedias. As an editor and translator has collaborated on various books and journals dealing with the netherworlds where culture, religion, and art meet.