William Mortensen (1897-1965) was an American art photographer, primarily known for his Hollywood portraits in the 1920s-1940s in the pictorialist style.
Mortensen began his photographic career taking portraits of Hollywood actors and film stills. In 1931 he moved to the artist community of Laguna Beach, California, where he opened a studio and the William Mortensen School of Photography.
He preferred the pictorialism style of manipulating photographs to produce romanticist painting-like effects. The style brought him criticism from straight photographers of the modern realist movement and, in particular, he carried on a prolonged written debate with Ansel Adams.
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
Pictorial Portrait photographer William Mortensen
