Vintage Movie Star Photos: Another Silent Photographer Favorite Max Munn Autrey

Max M. Autrey was born on May 23, 1891 in Dallas, Texas.

He was a still photographer on four films including "Modern Times" with Charlie Chaplin.

According to the Los Angles Times:

Most of the silent-movie stars photographed by a twentysomething Autrey in the 1920s for Fox Studio are forgotten today, with the exception of Clara Bow, the "It" girl. "It," of course, really meant "sex," and, even in the demure bathing suit of the time, Bow's exuberant, upraised-arm stance in swirling surf gave her an air of ready-for-anything sauciness.

Other Autrey shots include an image of Madge Bellamy coyly poised on tiptoe or Lanore De Lara vamping in what appears to be a hastily constructed toga.

He was mainly a portrait photographer for the Witzel Photography Studio in Downtown L.A. between the 1920s and 50s, noted for the glamour styles of the subjects and clientele which graced his work, especially those identified in the realm of motion pictures.

The soft, delicate shadow of a tree in the latter portrait represented a trickle-down effect from the art photography movement known as Pictorialism.

His works have become popular even appearing at museum shows alongside some of the greats like Hurrell.

He died August 5, 1971 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 80.

For more information and photographs you may want to check out this book:

Max Munn Autrey: One Photographer's Hollywood by Constance W. Glenn, David Quinn, Louise Moore, Alma Friedman and Mark Norton.

Here are some of his pictures: