George Daniell

George Daniell (1911–2002) was an accomplished American photographer and portraitist known for his sensitive depictions of artists, celebrities, and everyday life. He received degrees in photography and painting from Yale University, and began his photographic practice as a youth growing up in Yonkers, New York, capturing scenes of local life. During the Great Depression, Daniell documented the lives of fishermen along the Hudson River and on Grand Manan Island in Canada—images that reflect a recurring fascination with rivers and the motif of water that would persist throughout his career.

After completing his studies, Daniell began freelancing for major publications including Life, Time, and Esquire. In the 1950s, he traveled to Italy to work on the sets of Cinecittà Studios, photographing both the glamour of the film industry—shooting stars such as Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren—and the lingering postwar destruction evident in the country’s architecture and communities. His range allowed him to navigate between high society and humble subjects with ease, always imbuing his images with empathy and clarity.

Over the course of seven decades, Daniell’s work was exhibited widely and acquired by numerous major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His portraits of cultural figures—among them Georgia O’Keeffe and John Marin—are especially revered for their intimacy and depth. More recently, photographers such as Bruce Weber have championed Daniell’s legacy, helping to reintroduce his work to a new generation of viewers and collectors.