LONDON, ENGLAND.-Cornel Lucas (b.1920) has enjoyed a career as a leading photographer for over 40 years, first as one of the pre-eminent portraitists working for British Film Studios, from the late 1940s until the end of the 1950s, and thereafter as an independent photographer working in portraiture, advertising and fashion. This display brings together 50 of Lucas's finest works both in black-and-white and colour. Lucas first started taking photographs at the age of 14 but it was only after working in film laboratories that he graduated to professional photography working as a stills photographer for various film companies
Lucas's career first took off when he was asked to take portrait studies of Marlene Dietrich whilst she was filming in Britain opposite James Stewart in No Highway (1951). He became studio manager of the famous Pool Studio at Pinewood where, working with five assistants, he emulated the success of such American studio photographers as Clarence Sinclair Bull and George Hurrell. Subsequently Lucas was responsible for over 3,000 magazine covers ranging from specialist film magazines to the highly popular Picture Post. His iconic portraits included several sessions with Diana Dors, most notably when he photographed her in a mink bikini in a gondola in Venice during the 1954 film festival. Other memorable portraits of the 1950s include Dirk Bogarde, Alec Guiness, Laurence Harvey, Jean Simmons, Joan Collins and Mary Ure. International stars include Pier Angeli, Brigitte Bardot, Katharine Hepburn, Raquel Welch, Claudia Cardinale and Lauren Bacall.
In 1959 Lucas left the film industry to open his own studio off the King's Road in Chelsea, concentrating mostly on advertising and fashion and undertaking high profile commissions for leading clients, as well as portraits of stars such as Suzy Parker and Raquel Welsh.
