They Had Faces Then

George Hurrell shot photographs as if he were carving Mt. Rushmore. Credited with inventing the Hollywood glamour portrait that first appeared in the ‘20s, Hurrell had a genius for lighting and retouching that enabled him to transform the human face into a glowing landscape of dreams. Bathed in an otherworldly light that puts one in mind of paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Hurrell’s subjects evoked a world of privilege, prestige and wealth. To Americans in the grip of the Depression of the ‘30s, Hurrell’s movie stars must’ve seemed as if they inhabited a different planet.

The essential subject of Hurrell’s pictures is perfection, so inevitably their primary subtext is loneliness. Even when he photographed two stars embracing, Hurrell telegraphed the isolating, impenetrable force field that surrounds people of great power.

Born in Kentucky in 1904, Hurrell settled in Southern California in 1925, and four years later a friend arranged for him to photograph actor Ramon Novarro. The results were so dazzling that the studios kept him busy until 1943, when he was drafted. Hurrell’s stint in the Army coincided with a shift in the persona of the American movie star, which was becoming less iconic and more realistic--one recalls that at that point we were preparing ourselves for the Method School. That was fine with Hurrell, who was chafing at the constraints of the style he’d perfected, and he left Hollywood in 1946 to spend 12 years in New York.

After 14 years of helping to create the mythology of movies, Hurrell might’ve felt he’d done his bit for the collective unconscious--and that’s surely where his pictures took root.

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* Selections from “Hurrell’s Hollywood Portraits,” Mark A. Vieira’s new book George Hurrell’s work, go on view May 16 at USC’s Doheny Library. Schedule through July 1: Mondays to Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. From July 2 to Aug. 10: Mondays to Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free. (213) 740-2543.