Otto Dyar

Otto Dyar
BornJuly 25, 1892[1]
Jacksonville, Oregon
DiedDecember 26, 1988
Honolulu, Hawaii
OccupationCinematographer
Employers
  • Universal Film Manufacturing Company
  • Paramount (1927–1933)
  • Fox Film Corporation (1935)
  • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1950–1953)
image icon self-portrait,
while photographing Anna Mae Wong[2]

Otto Dyar was a cinematographer for Human Hearts (1922), later, a publicity and still photographer for Paramount (1927), then for Fox Film Corporation (1935), and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1950–1953).

Life

Otto Dyar was born July 25, 1892[1] in Jacksonville, Oregon and died December 26, 1988 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"... Otto Dyar , who worked with me the first year. After the series was completed, Otto wanted to continue the arrangement so we rented half a small studio on Sunset Boulevard . I was still at Paramount so I could only work at night ..." [3]—— John Engstead

Career

Otto Dyar, was a Universal Film Manufacturing Company cinematographer for Human Hearts (1922), later, a Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation publicity and still photographer (1927), then for Gaumont-British Picture Corporation (1935),[4] and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1950–1953).

Otto Dyar, who started as a still photographer, soon turned to portrait work and eventually became one of Paramount's major photographers. He left his job at Paramount in 1933, partly because of a camera operator's strike, but went on ...[5]

In 1927, John Engstead pleased his boss by arranging a photography session for actress Clara Bow with Dyar, using an outdoor setting,[6] which was unusual at that time.

His dramatic glamour portraits had contrasty lighting, heavy diffusion, and a unique use of an arc light, not an incandescent, as his key light. At Paramount he photographed Clara Bow at the outset of her rise to stardom, Louise Brooks in her famous bob, and Marlene Dietrich for Shanghai Express. At the Fox Film Corporation, he shot Clara Bow’s portraits for Hoop-La, her final film. He later worked as a unit still photographer at M-G-M.[7]

Dyar photographed unit, publicity and fashion layouts for Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple, William Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, Anna May Wong, Kay Francis, Madeleine Carroll, Nancy Carroll, Alice Faye, Clara Bow, Loretta Young, Mitzi Green, Gloria Swanson, Cary Grant, Tallulah Bankhead, Louise Brooks, Gary Cooper, and Fay Wray.[1]

Dyar photographed William Boyd, Jackie Coogan, Paul Lukas, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Dorothy Hall and Claire Trevor.[8]

Dyar photographed René Ray (Irene Lilian Creese) (later Countess of Midleton),[9] Sessue Hayakawa,[10] Will James[11] Maurice Chevalier,[12] Warner Baxter,[13] Anna Mae Wong,[14] Enid Stamp-Taylor,[15] Lilian Harvey,[16] Carole Lombard,[17] Palm Springs Tennis Club,[18] Elizabeth Taylor,[19] Cary Grant,[20]

His work can be found at the J. Paul Getty Museum,[21] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[22] National Portrait Gallery, London,[9] and other art museums.

Hollywood stills photographers like Dyar "were not mirroring life, but illusion; their subjects were not humans but gods – of love, of allure, of luxury, perfection incarnate from the golden age of Hollywood glamor"[23] — John Kobal[22]

"An interesting new kind of photography, done as easily with the two dollar camera in your own home as with the two hundred dollar instruments in the studio has been devised by Otto Dyar, clever young photographer of Hollywood."[24] - Science and Invention, January 1930

Michael Balcon imported Otto Dyar (who had done so much to promote Clara Bow) from America to craft the image of his protégé Jessie Matthews for transatlantic audiences. [25]

... Otto Dyar to sell First a Girl in 1935 , to see the immense difference made by an infusion of Hollywood knowhow . From that point on it is easy to imagine that she would be seriously touted as Ginger Rogers's successor in the arms of ...[26]

… Willis of the Labor Department in a decision enjoining the International Photographers of the Motion Picture Industries from interfering with the right of plaintiff, Otto Dyar, "to apply for, …[27]

International Photographers of the Motion Picture Industries had expelled Otto Dyar, a "still" camera man, legally and denied his plea for damages[28]

"... Otto Dyar, whose fascination with the overhead lighting methods used in advertising photography gave him a distinctively different approach to imagery, found himself copping the stage-frame idea for several publicity campaigns. "[29]

Further reading

  • Cantu, Hector. "Iconic Beauty: The Golden Age of Hollywood Films Was Also the Golden Age of Celebrity Photos". Heritage Magazine. go-star.com.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Otto Dyar". The Annenberg Space for Photography. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  2. ^ (1932). "A reflection in a mirror shows Paramount photographer, Otto Dyar taking a studio portrait of Chinese-American film star, Anna May Wong". Getty Images. John Kobal Foundation. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  3. ^ Engstead, John (1978). Star Shots: Fifty Years of Pictures and Stories by One of Hollywood's Greatest Photographers. Dutton. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-525-20950-8.
  4. ^ "Charges Union". Oxnard Press-Courier. Oxnard Press-Courier. Mar 26, 1941. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  5. ^ Elvehjem Museum of Art (1 June 1987). Hollywood Glamour, 1924-1956: Selected Portraits from the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Chazen Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-932900-15-9.
  6. ^ . "Clara Bow poses with her pet Airedale Terrier". Getty Images. Paramount Pictures.
  7. ^ "Otto Dyar". FATHOM | fathom-art.com. Archived from the original on 5 July 2025. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Ari and Helene Bousbib collection of photographs:". Special Collections Finding Aids. NYU .edu. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  9. ^ a b "René Ray (Irene Lilian Creese) (later Countess of Midleton)". www.npg.org.uk - National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Sold at Auction: Otto Dyar Sessue Hayakawa". invaluable.com. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  11. ^ "Exhibition Opens — Will James: The Eternal Cowboy". Yellowstone Art Museum. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  12. ^ "Otto Dyar (1892-1988) - Lot 190". Oger - Blanchet (in French). Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  13. ^ "Warner Baxter". collections.eastman.org. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  14. ^ Dyar, Otto (1932). "Anna Mae Wong". www.loc.gov. Part of: Annenberg Space for Photography Collection of Exhibition Prints, selected prints from the exhibition entitled Beauty CULTure
  15. ^ "O-KAY FOR SOUND". Rare Film Posters. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  16. ^ "Lilian Harvey". Rare Film Posters. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  17. ^ (1935). "Carole Lombard in striped bathrobe poses arms akimbo on steps leading up to backyard swimming pool". Getty Images. Hulton Archive. Carole Lombard (Jane Alice Peters, 1908 - 1942) who starred in Mack Sennett's comedies before joining Paramount in 1930. She married and divorced actor William Powell, before marrying screen hearthrob Clark Gable. She died in an aircrash.
  18. ^ "Historic Palm Springs Tennis Club". The Desert Sun. 2015-09-03. Retrieved 5 July 2025. Trout in the ditch at the Tennis Club. Tony Burke in center, Pearl and Austin McManus on the far right. Photo by Otto Dyar.
  19. ^ Machell, Ben (5 November 2011). "Elizabeth Taylor makes National Velvet". thetimes.com. Retrieved 5 July 2025. Taylor on set ; OTTO DYAR/KOBAL COLLECTION
  20. ^ "Cary Grants Life in Photos". Esquire. 3 August 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2025. Otto Dyar//Getty Images
  21. ^ Maker List - J. Paul Getty Museum
  22. ^ a b "Otto Dyar". Armenian Photography Foundation. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  23. ^ John Kobal (ed), Hollywood glamor portraits, Courier Corporation, 1976, pV
  24. ^ "Silohuette". Science and Invention. Experimenter Publishing Company. 1929. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  25. ^ Chibnall, Steve (3 April 2017). "Banging the gong: the promotional strategies of Britain's J. Arthur Rank Organisation in the 1950s". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 37 (2): 242–271. doi:10.1080/01439685.2016.1187849. hdl:2086/12257.
  26. ^ Taylor, John Russell; Kobal, John (1986). Portraits of the British Cinema: 60 Glorious Years, 1925-1985. Salem House. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-88162-151-8.
  27. ^ "Reports Ways of Improving Pretrial Plan". 4 Am. L. & Law. 1. 4 (11). 1942.
  28. ^ "Closed Shop Illegal If Monopoly Created". The Spokesman-Review. Feb 22, 1942. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  29. ^ Shields, David S. (18 June 2013). Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography. University of Chicago Press. p. 349. ISBN 978-0-226-01343-5.

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