Ira L. Hill (1877-1947)

Ira L. Hill opened his New York Studio the same year that Florenz Ziegfeld first staged his Follies-1907. Both would enjoy a gradual ascent to preeminence in their fields. Hill, offspring of a patrician Virginia family and a man of charm and energy, became the foremost Society photographer of Manhattan by 1910, the first call camera artist for publications such as Town & Country. He invested deeply in the painted backdrops for his sittings, hiring New York’s best scenic artists from the opera and theater to supply echt-English Gainsborough groves. For a modern note, he constructed a window seat in the latest style, and used electric lamps to emulate a sunny world beyond the window glass. The idea was picked up by other studios — particularly George Moffett’s in Chicago.

In the 1910s, whenever Ziegfeld wanted to lend luster to a talented young woman considered for elevation to featured status in his productions, he wou