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Famed Fashion Photographer Unveils Debut Exhibit in Flatiron District

By Mary Johnson | December 12, 2011 7:25am
Charles Tracy (at left) joined forces with Warren Wolf Kay to exhibit his photographs, both old and new, inside Kay's textile gallery, Wolf Home.
Charles Tracy (at left) joined forces with Warren Wolf Kay to exhibit his photographs, both old and new, inside Kay's textile gallery, Wolf Home.
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DNAinfo/Mary Johnson

FLATIRON — In a new exhibit at a Flatiron textile store, a high-fashion photographer ditches the couture for a single piece of chiffon.

Charles Tracy has captured some of the world’s most beautiful women on film throughout his career as a fashion photographer, shooting ad campaigns, catalogs and magazine editorials for more than 50 years.

At some point over the course of his career, someone gave Tracy a piece of chiffon fabric, which he would periodically ask models to pose with — and little else.

Nikki Taylor agreed to, as did many other men and women. Those shots grew into an entire collection of photographs, which are now on display inside Wolf Home on Broadway near East 22nd Street.

“I carried that chiffon with me for 20 years, from shoot to shoot to shoot,” Tracy said in an interview. “I still have it.”

The show — a part of the proceeds of which will go to benefit cancer research — marks the first time Tracy's work has been displayed in a large-scale exhibit. It’s also a first for Warren Wolf Kay, owner of Wolf Home, who specializes in creating textiles, not mounting art exhibitions.

The photos inside the textile gallery, curated by publicist and former model Debbie Dickinson, are mounted alongside pieces of furniture and drapery that have been arranged to complement the images.

Blue hues in photographs are mimicked with blue upholstery on a nearby velvet sofa. Orange tones in an image hanging above a bed are mixed with similarly colored duchess silk tufted on the headboard.

“My store is beautiful, but even more beautiful now that I have Mr. Tracy’s photos up,” Kay said. 

“It’s an interesting way to show. People are responding really well to it.”

Tracy included some historic fashion photos in the exhibit, in addition to the newer images. There are shots of singer and actress Rita Moreno, model Patty Hansen, jewelry designer Elsa Peretti and the legendary Liza Minnelli.

 

Tracy also incorporated a series of photographs taken at a 1973 fashion show in Paris that has become the subject of films and books in the years since it happened, he said. He still remembers the event vividly — how the French went over the top in their exposition of couture, while the Americans stayed subtle and let the clothing speak for itself.

“After all, we realized what we had done,” Tracy wrote on a small notecard next to the photographs. “American fashion became something else. We use[d] to copy the French, now we don’t have to do that anymore.”

The photos — 65 in total — are all for sale, with prices ranging from about $2,000 to $5,000, depending on the size and the nature of the photograph. A portion of the proceeds will go to promote cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

“It means a lot to [Charles] because his sister, Ruby Tracy, he lost her early [to cancer],” said Dickinson.

Tracy got a little emotional at the mention of his loss.

“She was my muse, my studio manager," he said, "and my sister."

Charles Tracy’s photographs will be on display at Wolf Home on Broadway and East 22nd Street from now until Dec. 24. The exhibit will come down for a few weeks and will be back on display beginning Jan. 6, 2012.