Toni Frissell

Women Come to the Front:: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II

Remembered today principally for her high-fashion photography for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, Toni Frissell (1907-1988) volunteered her photographic services to the American Red Cross, Women's Army Corps, and Eighth Army Air Force during WWII. On their behalf, she produced thousands of images of nurses, front-line soldiers, WACs, African-American airmen, and orphaned children.

Frissell's leap from fashion photography into war reportage echoed the desires of earlier generations of newswomen to move from "soft news" of fashion and society pages into the "hard news" of the front page. On volunteering for the American Red Cross in 1941, Frissell said: "I became so frustrated with fashions that I wanted to prove to myself that I could do a real reporting job." Using her connections with high-profile society matrons, Frissell aggressively pursued wartime assignments at home and abroad, often over her family's objections.

Frissell's work usually involved creating images to support the publicity objectives of her subjects. Her photographs of WACs in training and under review by President Franklin Roosevelt fit into a media campaign devised to counter negative public perception of women in uniform. Likewise, Frissell's images of the African American fighter pilots of the elite 332nd Fighter Group were intended to encourage positive public attitudes about the fitness of blacks to handle demanding military jobs.

"I'd Rather Stalk with a
Camera Than a Gun"

[Toni Frissell], c. 1935
Prints and Photographs Division (67)

Revolutionizing American Fashion Photography

[image not available online]
Toni Frissell, [Woman with dalmatian], June 1939
Prints and Photographs Division (68)
LC-F9-02-3906-048-07

First Wartime Cover Photo

[image not available online]
Toni Frissell, Vogue, July 1, 1941, cover
General Collections (69)

Accreditation No Guarantee of Access

(1942) (1945)
United States War Department,
official identification card for
Toni Frissell, 1942, 1945
Prints and Photographs Division (71)
LC-USZ62-128566=1942

Poster for Red Cross

Volunteer for Victory,
American Red Cross, 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (73)

Letter from Grace Eustis
to Toni Frissell,
December 13, 1941
Prints and Photographs Division (72)

A Taste of War Life

Toni Frissell,
[Red Cross Coffee Wagon],
November 1942
Prints and Photographs Division (75)
LC-59-02-4211-141-02

Broadcast From the Italian Front

[image not available online]
Toni Frissell,
radio script, April 1945
Prints and Photographs Division (76)

Italian Front in the Final Months
of the War

Toni Frissell,
[GIs at the Italian Front], (one) (two)
February and March 1945
Prints and Photographs Division (76.1, 76.2)
LC-F9-02-4503-376-11

With the First Lady on Tour

[image not available online]
Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt
to Toni Frissell,
December 30, 1944
Prints and Photographs Division (77)

Frissell's Red Cross Tour

Toni Frissell,
"I Went to England for the Red Cross,"
(one) (two)
Vogue,
February 1, 1943, pp. 47-48
General Collections (78)

Women's Army Corps Under FDR's Review

Toni Frissell,
[WACs],
April 1943
Prints and Photographs Division (79)
LC-F9-4304-053-11

The Human Face of War

[image not available online]
Toni Frissell,
[Soldiers at Red Cross installation],
1942
Prints and Photographs Division (139)
LC-F9-02-4211-048-03

TONI FRISSELL

"I'd Rather Stalk with a Camera Than a Gun"

Revolutionizing American Fashion Photography

First Wartime Cover Photo

Accreditation No Guarantee of Access

Poster for Red Cross

A Taste of War Life

Broadcast From the Italian Front

Italian Front in the Final Months of the War

With the First Lady on Tour

Frissell's Red Cross Tour

Women's Army Corps Under FDR's Review

Darkroom Work Prohibited

Frissell Gained Gratitude of WACs

Photos of the 332nd Fighter Group

Media Focus Shifted at War's End

Frissell with Europe's Children

The Human Face of War

"I'd Rather Stalk with a
Camera Than a Gun"

Italian Front in the Final Months
of the War