Toni Frissell began her career in photography in the 1930s, at first working as a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine. During World War II, she was, for a time, the official photographer for the American Red Cross, and later, the Women’s Army Corps. Her work took her to Europe, where she photographed soldiers and civilians affected by the war, including a famous series featuring the Tuskegee Airmen at an air base in Italy. In later years, she continued a career of photographing both famous and ordinary people for decades, amassing a collection of some 340,000 images. In 1971, Frissell donated her photographs to the Library of Congress, preserving the images and making them available to everyone. Below, a small collection of Frissell’s work. These images from this pioneer in her field are windows into our recent past.
The Works of Photographer Toni Frissell
1. A woman floats in Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, in 1947.
2. At the wedding of Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy, a close-up portrait of the Kennedy family with the couple on September 12, 1953.
3. Tuskegee airman Edward C. Gleed of Lawrence, Kansas, Class 42-K, Group Operations Officer, with Creamer's Dream, a P-51D fighter aircraft in Ramitelli, Italy, in March of 1945.
4. Abandoned boy holding a stuffed toy animal amid ruins following German aerial bombing of London in 1945.
5. A fashion model poses in an evening gown on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial with the Tidal Basin and Washington Monument in the background in July of 1952.
6. "Trooping the color." Sir Winston Churchill in the aisle to see and to be seen. Taken between 1940 and 1960.
7. Artist Frida Kahlo stands next to an agave plant during a photo shoot for Vogue magazine, "Senoras of Mexico," in 1937.
8. John F. Kennedy wearing sunglasses in September of 1957.
9. Nuns clamming on Long Island in September of 1957.
10. Several Tuskegee airmen. Front row, left to right: unidentified airman; Jimmie D. Wheeler (with goggles); Emile G. Clifton (cloth cap), San Francisco. Standing left to right: Ronald W. Reeves (cloth cap), Washington, D.C.; Hiram Mann (leather cap); Joseph L. "Joe" Chineworth (wheel cap), Memphis; Elwood T. Driver(?), Los Angeles; Edward "Ed" Thomas (partial view); Woodrow W. Crockett (wheel cap); in Ramitelli, Italy, in March of 1945.
11. A ground crewman of the Red-Tailed Mustangs, 332nd Fighter Pilot Squadron, sitting on a wing to direct a pilot in Ramitelli, Italy in March of 1945.
12. A fashion model sits on the edge of a boat in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in November of 1946.
13. Elizabeth Taylor, held by her husband Eddie Fisher. Photographed sometime between 1958 and 1964.
14. Richard Nixon and Dwight D. Eisenhower ride in an open convertible during Nixon's campaign for president in November of 1960.
15. American soldier, Red Bull Regiment, Italy, on Easter Sunday, 1945.
16. Five women hold hands and step forward in August of 1935.
17. A woman kneels next to the bed of a child in an underground tunnel during the bombing of London during World War II, in January of 1945.
18. Jacqueline Kennedy, September, 1957.
19. U.S. soldiers rest among ruins of a building on the Siegfried Line, in the Rhone Valley, on the German Front, in February of 1945.
20. A woman, probably a fashion model, lying among ferns. Photographed between 1940 and 1969.
21. Photographer Toni Frissell sits with a camera on her lap and with several children standing around her, somewhere in Europe in 1945.