Wilshire

At the turn of the century, the eccentric German dandy Adolph de Meyer spearheaded fashion photography with innumerable portraits of his beautiful wife, Olga. Everything we see in Vogue today--dramatic lighting to emphasize features and textures, the orchestration of a mood through pose, subtle props and background--is already at play in these 50 or so amazing period photos.

Done mostly with platinum printing that favors warm, brownish tones and softened contours, they have a romantic, exotic air right in step with the extra-curricular interests of the Victorian elite.

Olga begins as the personification of innocence and good breeding. She graduates to a fuller bodied dame of English high society (she was rumored to be King Edward VII’s illegitimate daughter) who, from what we see here, must have needed an extra manor just for couture. Out of favor in Britain, the couple moved to New York where De Meyer was for a time a respected fashion photographer for Conde Nast and Harpers.

In this period, Olga appears as the vamp, isolated in profile against stark backgrounds, the classic flapper in bleached hair. Without knowing the details of the De Meyer descent into drink and anonymity, that tragic trajectory unwittingly comes through the last portraits. (G. Ray Hawkins, 7224 Melrose Ave., to Nov. 25).