SHEILA METZNER
Born in Brooklyn, Sheila Metzner graduated from the High School of Art and Design and the Department of Visual Communications of the Pratt Institute. Upon graduation, she worked for the Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency, where she became the first female art director. Thanks to this position, she met and collaborated with such masters of photography as Richard Avedon and Melvin Sokolsky. Sheila Metzner did a lot of photography herself, in addition to working and raising five children. One of her photos was unexpectedly a hit of the famous exhibition “Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960,” held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This launched a great number of commercial jobs and gallery exhibitions for her.
ANDIE MACDOWELL, 1984
FRESSON PRINT 42X62 CM EDITION 1/15 PRINTED 2019 SIGNED VERSO BY THE AUTHOR IN PENCIL © SHEILA METZNER
Sheila Metzner owes much of her fame to her portraits of celebrities. This photo of actress Andie McDowell was taken by Metzner in 1984 for the September issue of American Vogue. The photos done by Metzner for advertising campaigns and magazines are organic out of the fashion context as well. They appear as independent works in the recognizable style of Sheila Metzner with her unique fascinating images.
UMA. PATOU DRESS, 1986
FRESSON PRINT 42X62 CM EDITION 1/15 PRINTED 2019 SIGNED VERSO BY THE AUTHOR IN PENCIL © SHEILA METZNER
Metzner’s works have a common and easily recognizable author’s style with rich deep tones and a soft focus. An example of her hallmark elegance and sophistication is her photograph of Uma Thurman in a Patou dress posing near a big sculpture in the shape of an inverted cone and a sphere.