Karl Struss American, 1886-1981

Karl Struss (1886-1981), one of the leading pictorial photographers of the pre-World War I era, is represented in the collection with 300 prints and 5,000 negatives. His reputation was established when Alfred Stieglitz selected his work for the 1910 International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography and then published a portfolio in Camera Work in 1912. In 1909 Struss invented the Struss Pictorial Lens, a soft-focus lens that proved immensely popular with other photographers of the period, including Laura Gilpin. After studying with Clarence White, Struss took over his studio in 1914 and specialized in portraiture, advertising, and magazine illustration. Five years later he moved to Hollywood and became Cecil B. DeMille's still-cameraman. Struss soon turned from still photography to cinematography, filming such works as Ben Hur (1925) and Sunrise (1927), for which he received the first Academy Award for cinematography.