Collection Online as of December 8, 2023
In the Canal - Cleveland
Grancel Fitz
(American, 1894–1963)
Gelatin silver print
Image: 32 x 23.8 cm (12 5/8 x 9 3/8 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1988.187
Location
not on view
Description
Cleveland’s industrial might in the 1920s is captured here in gauzy, impressionist strokes. Fitz transforms the grime and smoke of the canal at work into a subtle tapestry of reflections and shadows. He would eventually abandon this type of pictorial photography for the more precise sensibility required for advertising photography, ultimately becoming a national leader in that field.
Grancel Fitz
Grancel Fitz American, 1894-1963
As an amateur photographer, Grancel Fitz (born in Philadelphia) won numerous awards in pictorial salons before entering the new field of advertising photography in the 1920s. Photographs soon supplanted drawn illustrations as a way to sell products, and in 1929 Fitz opened a commercial studio in New York City. By the 1930s he was producing images for AT&T, Corning Glass, Chrysler Corporation, Ivory Soap, General Motors, and Westinghouse Electric. The glamorous world of make-believe created in his photographs promoted clients' products by associating them with a luxurious, desirable lifestyle.
One of the most successful of the first generation of advertising photographers, Fitz received eight Art Director Club Awards between 1924-45 and served three terms as president of the Society of Photographic Illustrators. After 1945, his interest shifted to big-game hunting. M.M.