| Henry Wolf | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 23, 1925 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | February 14, 2005 (aged 79) New York, USA |
| Occupation | Art Director, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Author, Teacher |
| Years active | 1946-2005 |
Henry Wolf (May 23, 1925 - February 14, 2005) was an Austrian-born American graphic designer, photographer and art director best known for his art direction of Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, and Show magazines in the 1950s and '60s.
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Henry Wolf was an influential graphic designer and art director.[1] He was born in 1925 in Vienna, Austria, from which he and his Jewish family fled the Nazis beginning in 1938, traveling through France and North Africa, before arriving to the United States in 1941.[2] He worked with photographers Richard Avedon, Melvin Sokolsky and Art Kane before launching his own photography studio in New York's Upper East Side.
Wolf became art director of Esquire in 1952. His creative designs were influential in developing the sophisticated image the magazine is now known for.[3] In 1958, Wolf became the art director of Harper's Bazaar, succeeding Alexey Brodovitch. At Harper's Wolf worked with Richard Avedon, and Man Ray. Wolf is also credited as having given the then up-and-coming fashion photographer Melvin Sokolsky his first big break. After three years at Harper's Bazaar, Wolf left to start a new magazine, Show for A&P Heir Huntington Hartford.
In 1965 he began working for McCann Erickson where he directed high-profile advertisement campaigns such as Alka Seltzer, Buick, Gillette and Coca-Cola. Later he joined advertising executive Jane Trahey to form Trahey/Wolf, with Wolf as the vice president and creative director. For the next few years he worked on many commercial campaigns, including Saks Fifth Avenue and I. Magnin, as well as advertisements for Xerox, IBM, Revlon, De Beers, Blackgama Mink, Charles of the Ritz, Elizabeth Arden, and Union Carbide.[3]
In 1971 he launched Henry Wolf Productions, a studio devoted to photography, film and design. For the next three decades, Wolf worked as both a photographer and a designer. He created over 500 television commercials and nine films, shooting for Van Cleef & Arpels, RCA, Revlon, Borghese, Olivetti and Karastan among others[3]. His work was published in many magazines, including Esquire, Town and Country, Domus, and New York.
He taught graphic design at Parsons School of Design in New York, as well as the School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union.
He died February 14, 2005 at age 79.
