Garbo Portraits - by Russell Ball

Russell Ball (1896–1942) was an American photpgrapher. From September - November 1925, Ball made the first official MGM portraits of Garbo. American publicist Hubert Voight, invited Russell Ball to photograph Garbo in the summer of 1925  in New York. If Voight's memory is accurate, studies of the actress were made in her hotel room even though Ball's studio was nearby at 9 West 49th Street. Wherever the session took place, Garbo again showed indifference to the occasion, appearing with messy hair and casual clothes, and without makeup.

The first Photo Session

Ball posed Garbo standing against a wall, first wearing her own clothing–a leather jacket and simple dress. Later she disrobed and covering herself with drapes or a fur, playfully allowed him to shoot some modest cheesecake. Ball had been hired to provide a few studies to MGM publicity that would help prepare the Culver City team for Garbo's arrival. It is a testament to his craft that he could deliver a dozen worthy prints, but of an almost unrecognizable Garbo. Ball's photographs in close-up foreshadowed the magic later revealed in Hollywood.

At one point, Ball said he'd like her in something colorful, but Garbo was uncomprehending. Voight did a kind of Spanish-dance pantomime, pointing to some bright colors. She nodded sagely, left, and returned wearing a veil of gossamer-like material – very alluring, and but for that had nothing on but her skirt.

Some time after their first photosession, Russell Ball moved from New york to Los Angeles and was working at MGM when he photographed Garbo again. Those photographs were made in August 1927, between Love and The Divine Woman. Because she was making films back-to-back, her portrait sessions were often scheduled without regard for costumes from respective productions. This session's wardrobe comprised a gold lamé cape, a pair of white pajamas, and a black bathrobe.

He was up to his old tricks, this time with great success. The coy sexiness he had found in Garbo two years before was now refined, and the two might have smiled together in memory as he asked Garbo to drop her dress suggestively below one shoulder as he snapped the shutter. Russell Ball used a soft-focus lens and one large, soft light above the camera to make this portrait of Garbo.

A second costume was a simple sheer white negligee that allowed the photographer to concentrate on her face and thick mane of hair. These images were intended for magazine covers and served that purpose so well they were used over and over with no sense of exclusivity.

Russell Ball used a vignetter to make Garbo dissolve into a white background in this 1927 portrait. For the next two years it was the most widely reproduced image of Garbo.