Eugene Raymond Hutchinson

Like contemporaries Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, Hutchinson first made his mark as a pictorialist, using lighting and darkroom techniques to transform his work into artistic images.

[1] winning favor most notably among leading lights in the world of literature, the arts and progressive politics, his clients including Rupert Brooke,[2] Carl Sandburg,[3] Edgar Lee Masters,[4] Anna Pavlova,[5] Emma Goldman,[6] and William Jennings Bryan.

It was reflected perhaps most dramatically in his "Eighty-Five Years," a study of two, thin clasped hands against a black dress that was one of 155 prints selected by the Royal Photographic Society of London for a 1935 exhibit in which the National Academy of Design belatedly recognized photography as a field of art.

[11] By 1910, Hutchinson apparently was supporting himself as a portrait photographer, catering to the well-off residents of Chicago's "Gold Coast" suburbs from his studio in Lake Forest.

As one source points out, "he developed a fascination with dancers as subjects, cultivating enduring relationships with Anna Pavlova, Adolph Bolm, Ruth Page, and the Pavley-Oukrainsky dance troupe."

Unlike Arnold Genthe and Maurice Goldberg, for example, Hutchinson rejected one source natural light in his images, relying instead on portable lamps placed in multiple locations.

[9] After moving to a new Chicago studio at 2746 Hampden Court, Hutchinson by the early 1920s had gained sufficient fame to attract top-flight apprentices, most notably William C. Odiorne[14] and George Hurrell.

Perhaps reflecting this change of interests, Hutchinson abandoned Chicago for New York City in 1930, setting up shop in the Bryant Park Studios Building, also the base for Edward Steichen.

While some of his original photographs were destroyed in a family home after his death, many remain in institutional collections including those of the George Eastman House, the New York City Public Library, National Portrait Gallery, University of Illinois, and Guggenheim Museum.