Adolf de Meyer
(From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia)
Adolf de Meyer (1868-1949) was a
Paris born photographer who became world famous for his elegant
photographic portraits of famous people. Born to a German father and
Scottish mother, he was educated in Dresden, and in 1893 joined the Royal
Photographic Society. In 1899, he married Olga Caracciolo, whose godfather
was Edward VII. It was a marriage of convenience more than love, as de
Meyer was homosexual, and his wife Olga was bisexual. Olga was involved
for some time, from 1901 to 1905, in a lesbian affair with wealthy
Winnaretta Singer, heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Cecil
Beaton once dubbed Adolf de Meyer "the Debussy of photography".
Edward VII's relation to Olga is disputed. There are some that have
claimed he was, in truth, her father, having had an affair with her
mother. However, there is little truth to that claim, and at most he laid
claim to being her "godfather". At Edward VII's request, much due to his
association with de Meyer's wife, Olga, Adolf was made baron by Frederick
Augustus III of Saxony. In 1914, on the verge of financial ruin due to
World War I, he and Olga moved to New York City, where he became a
photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair. In 1922, de Meyer accepted the
offer to become the Harper's Bazaar chief photographer. He returned to
Paris, and spent the next sixteen years there. On the eve of World War II,
de Meyer returned to the United States, and found that he was a relic in
the face of the rising modernism of his art. Today, few of his prints
survive, most having been destroyed during World War II.
