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#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}In one of Victor Skrebneski’s earliest memories from the 1930s, he is 4 years old and sitting in the fifth row at Chicago’s Standard movie theater for a matinee double bill. His neck strains as he looks almost straight up at the towering image of Frankenstein.
He was terrified. But by the time the second feature â€" “Rin Tin Tin†â€" started, he was hooked on films.
Victor Skrebneski Victor Skrebneski with his mother. 1945.He was a quiet child who listened to the nuns at school and eventually became an altar boy. But entranced by the black-and-white images as they danced before him on the screen, he spent more time at the movies than in church. At first he went to the movies with his parents, both recent immigrants from Poland, and saw worlds quite different, and often more sophisticated, than his life in Depression-era Chicago.
“I tried to go to the movies every afternoon after school,†Mr. Skrebneski said in an interview this week. “I loved the experience of watching wonderful things going on, and that’s what I brought into photographing â€" seeing how they lit and directed movie stars like Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant and Bette Davis.â€
Mr. Skrebneski, 83, grew up to become an acclaimed fashion and advertising photographer, traveling to the world’s capitals and working almost continuously for more than 60 years. He befriended fashion legends and movie stars, including Ms. Davis, but always returned to Chicago, where he lives in a building that also houses his photo studio. He was In New York recently to receive a Lucie award for lifetime achievement in fashion photography.
Victor Skrebneski Self-portrait. 2012.Among his best-known images are his series of celebrity photos that he calls “the black turtleneck sweater portraits.†The first was of the director Orson Welles, made for the Warner Brothers studio in 1970.
When Mr. Welles showed up an hour late, he started to take off his dark sweater. Mr. Skrebneski persuaded him to keep it on and photographed him with a single light above his head. He shot from an angle that was reminiscent of Mr. Skrebneski’s childhood trips to the movies with his father, who liked to sit in the front row.
Most of the frame (Slide 1) was filled with a solid, imposing black, homage to the era when the movies were large â€" before iPads, video games or even cable television.
Victor Skrebneski “Paris Horses.†1952.When he photographed Ms. Davis the following year, he brought a black sweater for her. (It was a few sizes smaller than the one Mr. Welles wore.) It became Ms. Davis’s favorite photo, and she spoke of it often.
“There’s a portrait of me by Skrebneski that pegged me perfectly, and that frightened me when I first saw it,†she later said. “I’m playing movie star, and doing it damn well â€" most would fall for it â€" but the focus of an artist, an artist who knows how to wield that unforgiving eye of the camera, has found me out.â€
He also photographed Dennis Hopper, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol and Ms. Rogers, among many others, in black.
“For decades after, whenever people wanted their portrait done, they would come to me and say, ‘Can I put on that black turtleneck that Bette Davis wore?’ †Mr. Skrebneski said.
Victor Skrebneski “Legs.†2006.For 27 years he was the exclusive photographer for Estée Lauder and worked for Ralph Lauren, Chanel and Givenchy as well as Vogue, Town & Country, Esquire and other magazines. He is known for being kind and generous with models and worked extensively with Iman as she was starting out. He says he discovered Cindy Crawford, a local girl, when she walked in unannounced to his Chicago studio.
“I had Cindy Crawford sit right next to me and I told her to watch everything Iman does and copy that,†Mr. Skrebneski said.
Although most publications credited with making a fashion photographer’s career are based in New York or Paris, Mr. Skrebneski continued to flourish in Chicago, where his reputation drew a stream of international clients. He became a respected member of Chicago civic society and met monthly with Mayor Richard M. Daley for many years.
The street outside his studio, a former coach house, has been named Victor Skrebneski Way. If you drop by to visit him there, you will find him still working in his studio. He has a huge photo of caviar in the October issue of Town & Country.
And if you’re looking for a portrait, he still has the sweater that Ms. Davis and other movie stars wore while sitting for him.
Victor Skrebneski Self-portrait. Circa 1960s.Follow @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.
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