Ava Gardner, by George Hoyningen-Huene, 1956

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Baron George Hoyningen-Huene (September 4, 1900, Saint Petersburg – September 12, 1968, Los Angeles), important and influential fashion and portrait photographer, especially know for his work during the 1920s and 1930s.  His father was a Baltic nobleman, his mother was American.  After the Russian Revolution, he lived in London, then Paris, and moved to the United States in 1935.  The majority of his work was done for Vogue magazine and Harper's Bazaar.  He was a mentor, and for a time, lover, of the future photographer Horst P. Horst.  Later, he worked in Hollywood in various capacities, and had a productive creative relationship with the director George Cukor, for whom he served as a special visual and color consultant.  Their work together includes A Star is Born, Heller in Pink Tights, and Bhowani Junction.  (The latter starring Ava Gardner and made in 1956, the year these photographs were taken.)