Ellen Graham: Unscripted opened at The Norton Museum of Art on Thursday night and will remain on view through June 16.
The exhibition features portraits and street photography taken by the prolific artist in her unique “unscripted” style over the six decades of her career shooting for Harper’s Bazaar, People, W Magazine, Time, and Newsweek, and includes some of the most iconic public figures of the 20th century such as: David Bowie, Andy Warhol, and Sharon Tate. It is comprised of images both gifted to the Norton in 2021 by the Ellen and Ian Graham Foundation, as well as a selection on loan from the Ellen Graham Archive.
Andy Warhol by Ellen Graham.
David Bowie by Ellen Graham.
Sharon Tate by Ellen Graham.
“Graham’s photographs feature qualities that stretch beyond many of her contemporaries: a sense of immediacy, moments of intimacy and humor, and the remarkable ability to disarm her subjects,” said Lauren Richman, Ph.D., the Norton’s William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography.
Between the 1960s and 1990s, magazines sought Ellen Graham’s talent to make intimate photographs of notable people that connected with the viewer on a human level. Graham’s portraits show this personal view of figures such as Marissa Berenson, Cher, Arthur Ashe, Anthony Hopkins, Julie Christie, Julio Iglesias, Fred Astaire, Barbara Streisand, Natalie Wood, Carrie Fisher, Julie Andrews, Burt Reynolds and many others.
Speaking about her craft, Graham said, “Photography changed my life. My love of photography inspired me to help the Norton with its mission to promote photography to others.”
Kit Pannill and Ellen’s son Alexis Graham
Victoria McManus and Lorna James
Shanna Birnbaum & Alexis Graham with Cameron Sterling
Whitney Port
Arden Sherman, Alexander Yulish and J. Logan Horne
Ana Sulkhanishvili
Martha & Gil Lamphere
Mai Hallingby-Harrison, Katherine Bryan, Philip Richter, Lauren Richman, Nicolas von Lehndorff, and George Hamilton.
