Gordon Coster, Beauty Advertisement, c. 1935, Vintage gelatin silver print, 8" x 10". Artist's credit stamped on verso. Numbered in pencil on verso.

Artist Biography: Gordon H. Coster (1906-1988) was a commercial photographer who worked in Chicago for a major portion of his career. He began practicing professional photography in the early 1920s when he worked for a number of well-known photographic studios, such as Bachrach Portrait Studio (Baltimore, Md.), before establishing a free-lance business. During this time, his photographs were frequently published in the Baltimore Sun newspaper. In 1929, he joined the firm of Underwood & Underwood, a leading picture agency. Coster primarily supplied advertising photographs for this agency's New York and Chicago offices. One of his major Chicago clients was Marshall Field & Company.

During the 1930s Coster began documenting labor union activities, and those of anti-fascist and peace movements. From 1927-1936 his work was widely exhibited in photographic salons, and he won several awards for his pictorialist work.

From 1941 to 1955, Coster was frequently commissioned by Life magazine. Notable assignments for Life included subjects such as oil, wheat, industry, and World War II, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Mayor Kelley's Chicago. One of his photographs was used on the Life cover in 1943. Coster also did freelance work for the magazines Time, Fortune, Holiday, Ladies Home Journal and Scientific American. His work was also used in publications of the following corporations: Allstate Insurance Company (Home and Highway), Simplicity (Modern Miss), International Minerals and Chemicals, Dramatic Publishing Company, and the architecture firm of Perkins and Will.

Gordon Coster taught photography at the Institute of Design (Chicago, Ill.) in 1946, 1950-51, and in 1960. He was solicited by Edward Steichen to join a group of photographers who were documenting World War II for the U.S. Navy. Later, in 1955, Steichen also selected Coster's work for inclusion in "The Family of Man," a landmark exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Today, Coster's work is viewed as representative of the development of pictorialist, documentary and early modernist movements in photography. (source: Chicago History Museum)

Good condition, minor damage to corners visible in photos.

8 x 10 in