=== Color photography ===
=== Color photography ===
By the mid-1930s, Harry Warnecke developed an interest in creating [[Color photography|color photographs]] via the [[Carbon print|color carbro]] process, which was a complicated and time-consuming process, but produced (according to [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|NPG]] curator Ann Shumard) “wonderful, vivid color” while preserving its color for a long period of time. Warnecke was dean of the ”Daily News”{{‘}} color photography studio, and along with his assistants, shot full color portraits for the newspaper’s ”Sunday Gravure” magazine each week using this process.<ref name=”:0″ /><ref name=”:2″>{{Cite book |last=Karol |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KoABABSnX7oC |title=Lucy a to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia |date=January 4, 2004 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=978-0-595-75213-3 |pages=316–317 |language=en}}</ref> His subjects included [[Lucille Ball]],<ref name=”:2″ /> [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], and [[Orson Welles]], among many other notables.<ref name=”:0″ /> Unusually,<ref name=”:0″ /> Warnecke credited all his assistants involved in the photographs.<ref name=”:4″>{{Cite news |last=Boyle |first=Katherine |date=February 24, 2012 |title=”Vibrant Color”: Harry Warnecke’s celebrity photos at the Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/vibrant-color-harry-warneckes-celebrity-photos-at-the-portrait-gallery/2012/02/22/gIQAVFr8XR_story.html |access-date=October 19, 2025 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><gallery mode=”packed”>
By the mid-1930s, Harry Warnecke developed an interest in creating [[Color photography|color photographs]] via the [[Carbon print|color carbro]] process, which was a complicated and time-consuming process, but produced (according to [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|NPG]] curator Ann Shumard) “wonderful, vivid color” while preserving its color for a long period of time. Warnecke was dean of the ”Daily News”{{‘}} color photography studio, and along with his assistants, shot full color portraits for the newspaper’s ”Sunday Gravure” magazine each week using this process.<ref name=”:0″ /><ref name=”:2″>{{Cite book |last=Karol |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KoABABSnX7oC |title=Lucy a to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia |date=January 4, 2004 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=978-0-595-75213-3 |pages=316–317 |language=en}}</ref> His subjects included [[Lucille Ball]],<ref name=”:2″ /> [[Louis Armstrong]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], and [[Orson Welles]], among many other notables.<ref name=”:0″ /> Unusually,<ref name=”:0″ /> Warnecke credited all his assistants involved in the photographs.<ref name=”:4″>{{Cite news |last=Boyle |first=Katherine |date=February 24, 2012 |title=”Vibrant Color”: Harry Warnecke’s celebrity photos at the Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/vibrant-color-harry-warneckes-celebrity-photos-at-the-portrait-gallery/2012/02/22/gIQAVFr8XR_story.html |access-date=October 19, 2025 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><gallery mode=”packed”>
File:Orson Welles by Harry Warnecke and Lee Elkins, 1939, color carbro print, from the National Portrait Gallery – NPG-NPG 94 50Welles-000002.jpg|[[Orson Welles]], 1939
File:Orson Welles by Harry Warnecke and Lee Elkins, 1939, color carbro print, from the National Portrait Gallery – NPG-NPG 94 50Welles-000002.jpg|[[Orson Welles]], 1939
File:Lucille Ball, NPG 94 40.jpg|[[Lucille Ball]], 1940
File:Lucille Ball, NPG 94 40.jpg|[[Lucille Ball]], 1940
American photographer (1900–1984)
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Harry Warnecke |
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.jpg) Warnecke in 1926 |
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| Born | (1900-08-26)August 26, 1900 |
| Died | February 1984(1984-02-00) (aged 83) |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Years active | 1921–1970 |
| Known for | Color carbro photography |
Harry Warnecke (August 26, 1900 – February 1984) was an American photographer who worked for the New York Daily News, specializing in color portraits for its Sunday edition.[1] From the mid-1930s, he and his assistants at his studio used the complicated color carbro process to produce full color photos of many notables of the time, including Louis Armstrong, Lucille Ball, George S. Patton, Dwight D. Eisenhower, among others. Twenty-four of the prints developed at his studio are now on permanent display at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Harry Warnecke was born on August 26, 1900,[2][3] and was either a brother[4][5] or son of photographer William Warnecke.[6] He joined the staff of the New York Daily News as a photographer in 1921, initially producing black-and-white photos for the paper.[7]
Mother Cat Stops Traffic
[edit]
On July 29, 1925, Warnecke shot what National Press Photographer described as “one of the memorable news pictures in the history of photojournalism”:[8] a staged photo of police officer James Cudmore holding up traffic to let a mother cat cross through while carrying her kitten.[9] The inciting incident for the photograph came when Cudmore had held up traffic on Lafayette Street at Walker Street to let the cat named Blackie carry her five kittens across the road. Upon being tipped off by a caller of the officer’s deed, Warnecke was dispatched by the Daily News to the scene to take photos. Initially photographing Blackie with her kittens under a desk, Warnecke then requested the cat’s owner and the policeman to re-enact the moment in a staged shot, to which both obliged. Despite the hold-up irritating drivers near the photoshoot, and a failed first attempt after the cat meandered away, Warnecke eventually took the historic photo of the cat crossing the road while carrying her kitten in her mouth. He even had the whole shot restaged again afterwards.[9]
When the photo ran in the Daily News, numerous requests for reprints were sent in, and Warnecke was even commended by the police commissioner.[9] In 2013, New York‘s Intelligencer called the story surrounding the photo “the No. 1 news story of 1925”.[12]
While taking photos of the Passaic textile strike on March 3, 1926, Warnecke was one of many photographers at the scene attacked by police breaking up the strike. He was assaulted by six policemen and his camera was destroyed after he captured Karl W. Fasold of Pathé News being beaten up by police.[13][14] The attack was witnessed by William Warnecke, who said that he was unable to obtain the names of the policemen involved.[5]
By the mid-1930s, Harry Warnecke developed an interest in creating color photographs via the color carbro process, which was a complicated and time-consuming process, but produced (according to NPG curator Ann Shumard) “wonderful, vivid color” while preserving its color for a long period of time. Warnecke was dean of the Daily News‘ color photography studio, and along with his assistants, shot full color portraits for the newspaper’s Sunday Gravure magazine each week using this process.[7][15] His subjects included Lucille Ball,[15] Louis Armstrong, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Orson Welles, among many other notables.[7] Unusually,[7] Warnecke credited all his assistants involved in the photographs.[16]
24 of his portraits were sent to the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, D.C., in 2012, and were displayed that year in an exhibition entitled “In Vibrant Color: Vintage Celebrity Portraits from the Harry Warnecke Studio.”[7][16] Originally kept in his home, the prints were mostly donated by his widow, Elsie.[16] The exhibition received a review from Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times, who commented on his bemusement at seeing full-color portraits of famous people seen mainly in black and white. He said that in Warnecke’s portrait of WWII general George S. Patton, the subject appeared as if he “could work as a department store Santa.” Ultimately, he praised the photos at the exhibition: “The black-and-white era is often regarded as a purist ideal, but the Warnecke Studio’s works show that unless you had a big nose or a foam mustache, it’s color, not black and white, that revealed the real you.”[17]
Warnecke retired in 1970, and died in February 1984, aged 83.[3][7]
- ^ Lewis, Richard Warrington Baldwin; Lewis, Nancy (January 1, 1999). American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery, Accompanied by Literary Portraits. Yale University Press. p. 398. ISBN 978-0-300-07895-4.
- ^ “The National Portrait Gallery/Exhibitions/In Vibrant Color: Vintage Celebrity Portraits from the Harry Warnecke Studio”. npg.si.edu. Retrieved October 18, 2025.
- ^ a b “Harry Warnecke | PIC – Photographers’ Identities Catalog”. pic.nypl.org. Retrieved October 18, 2025.
- ^ Kaplan, Michael, ed. (March 1, 1988). Variety Obituaries, 1939. Vol. 3. Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8240-0837-6.
- ^ a b “N. Y. NEWSPAPERS PROBE STRIKE CLUBBINGS”. Editor & Publisher. March 13, 1926.
- ^ Rogers, Madeline (1994). “The Picture Snatchers”. American Heritage. Vol. 45, no. 6. American Association for State and Local History. p. 68.
- ^ a b c d e f Mustich, Emma (February 25, 2012). “Celebrity portraits from New York’s first tabloid”. Salon.com. Retrieved October 18, 2025.
- ^ National Press Photographer. National Press Photographers Association. 1961.
- ^ a b c Faber, John (January 1, 1978). Great News Photos and the Stories Behind Them. Courier Corporation. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-486-23667-4.
- ^ Amira, Dan (October 24, 2013). “The Original Subway Kitten Was This 1925 Street Cat”. Intelligencer. Retrieved October 18, 2025.
- ^ McMullen, David Lee (July 18, 2010). Strike!: The Radical Insurrections of Ellen Dawson. University Press of Florida. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-8130-4297-8.
- ^ “POLICE IN SIDECARS CLUB AND CHASE 3,000 IN PASSAIC STRIKE; Women and Children Are Ridden Down in Attack That Replies to Jeers and Snowballs. NEWS CAMERAS SMASHED Photographers Get Share of Clubbing by Order of Commander — Reporters Beaten. CITIZENS MAY ASK MILITIA Discuss Forming Committee for Appeal to Moore — Strikers to Persist In Picketing. POLICE IN SIDECARS CLUB AND CHASE 3,000”. The New York Times. March 4, 1926. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
- ^ a b Karol, Michael (January 4, 2004). Lucy a to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia. iUniverse. pp. 316–317. ISBN 978-0-595-75213-3.
- ^ a b c Boyle, Katherine (February 24, 2012). ““Vibrant Color”: Harry Warnecke’s celebrity photos at the Portrait Gallery”. The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on February 26, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
- ^ Genzlinger, Neil (March 13, 2012). “Adding a Colorful Gloss to a Black-and-White World”. The New York Times. Retrieved October 19, 2025.
