From vintage to contemporary prints, Vanity Fair Portraits captures viewers’ imagination, taking them on a journey of nearly 100 years of popular culture. The glamour of the golden age of cinema shines in portraits of American actresses Gloria Swanson, Anna May Wong and the Gish sisters; an incandescent portrait of Jean Harlow three years before her death; and beloved icons of the silver screen, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. With a nod to modernity – a significant element of the magazine’s inception - the Jazz Age is represented by classic studies of trumpeter Louis Armstrong and entertainer Josephine Baker. The selection also includes unpublished images, including a portrait of 1930s actress Alice White by Florence Vandamm and a study of Weimar era artist George Grosz by Emil Bieber.

Bringing the exhibition to the 21st century, we are invited to look into the eyes of firefighters near Ground Zero (2001); a powerful image of actress Hilary Swank running on a beach (2004) and Annie Leibovitz’s Hollywood Issue cover (2001), featuring Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave, Kate Winslet, Chloe Sevigny, Sophia Loren and Penelope Cruz. From the world of music, portraits of Philip Glass (2002) and Liza Minnelli (2002) are juxtaposed with images of Run DMC (2005) and Radiohead (2000).