Bruehl, Anton, 1900-1982

Australian-born photographer Anton Bruehl was born in 1900 in the small town of Naracoorte, South Australia. Having trained in Melbourne as an electrical engineer, he arrived in New York in 1918 under the employ of Western Electric. After attending an exhibition of photography by the students of the Clarence H. White School of Photography in 1923, Bruehl took six months leave from Western Electric to study privately under Clarence White. During this period he also worked in the studio of Jessie Tarbox Beals, and eventually began to teach evening classes at the White school. In 1926 he opened his own studio on 47th street whilst working with former White student Ralph Steiner to create the award winning "Fabric Group" campaign which appeared in the New Yorker between 1927 - 1930. Bruehl relocated his studio to more spacious premises on Lexington Avenue, and was joined by his brother Martin in 1927. The studio was commissioned by Conde Nast publications to supply images for magazines such as Vogue, House and Garden, and Vanity Fair. The studio flourished during the Depression, and Bruehl was appointed Chief of Colour Photography at Conde Nast in the early 1930's. He collaborated with colour technician Fernand Bourges to perfect standards of commercial colour image reproduction. Bruehl's creative work had also been exhibited during this period, notably in the 1929 Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart, and New York by New Yorkers at the Julien Levy gallery in 1932. In 1931 he mounted a one-man exhibition at the Delphic Studios (New York), which was followed by a 1933 exhibit of his documentary photographs contained in his photographic narrative Mexico, which won an American Institute of Graphic Arts best illustrated book of the year award.