Max Yavno (1911-1985) The Heiress (Première at Carthay Circle), 1949 Gelatin silver print, printed later; mounted, signed in pencil on the mount. 19 3/8 x 15 1/2 in. (49.2 x 39.4 cm.) mount 28 x 22 in. (71.1 x 55.9 cm.) Footnotes: Provenance Dennis Rader & Associates, Los Angeles; Acquired from the above by the present owners in 1980. Literature Max Yavno, The Photography of Max Yavno (Berkeley, 1981), pl. 10 Note In 1949, publisher Houghton Mifflin commissioned Max Yavno to make a photography book featuring the city of Los Angeles, particularly encouraging him to lend a satirical edge to his images by highlighting the outlandish architecture for which the area was well-recognized. One such result is the present image, The Heiress (Première at Carthay Circle), which Yavno took at the 1949 film premiere of 'The Heiress', starring Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift. Years later, Yavno suggested that this image actually deviated from his publisher's expectations. 'I'm wondering how much of Première was satirical. Everyone sort of laughs at these big, posh Hollywood openings. But I felt that it was part of Hollywood.' Yavno's photographs often captured dramatic linear planes and extreme depth of field, such as the decidedly horizontal format of Muscle Beach, Los Angeles (Lot 238), or the imposing verticality of The Leg, Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles (Silk Stocking) (Lot 209) and the present lot. Yavno explained his compositional choices in a 1981 interview with Ben Maddow: 'Of course [vertical and horizontal formats] are important to me - not so much in themselves, but in the sense that most of the time it disturbs me aesthetically to look at pictures where the verticals are not parallel to the edge, and the same for the horizontals. This is what led me to use a view camera.' He further elaborated, 'Even more broadly, I feel that technique is very important, though it serves only the same function as grammar to a writer. In other words, all the technique in the world won't make you a great photographer any more than mastering grammar will make you a fine writer. But these help you communicate, which is an important part of what photography is all about - in my opinion.' (The Photography of Max Yavno, n.p.). Lot to be sold without reserve. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ¤ ¤ Unless indicated by the ¤ symbol next to the lot number (or bearing an explicit statement such as 'No Reserve' or 'Without Reserve'), which denotes no reserve, all lots in the catalog are subject to a reserve. The reserve is the minimum hammer price that the seller is willing to accept for a lot. This amount is confidential and does not exceed the low estimate value. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing