Alfredo Valente (Italian, 1899-1973)
Valente was a theater and performing arts photographer who captured the rich, bustling life of Broadway. His photography mirrors the vibrance and drama of the stage through the variety of production techniques he used to create artful and emotive images. In one image of Marsden Hartley, the artist looks deep in thought with the lens tightly framing his face. Diagonal light from the right-side illuminates Hartley’s face and hand. Valente used studio lighting to dramatically illuminate the image and emphasize the cinematic nature of his portraits, infused with story and theatricality.
Valente was born in Calabria, and trained as an opera singer, moving to the US in 1924 to pursue opera. He pivoted to a career photographing the theater and became the head photographer for the Group Theater in 1931, worked at Stage Magazine, and would eventually become the choice stage photographer for the New York Times. Valente was immersed in the New York arts community, was an avid collector, and opened the Alfredo Valente Gallery in 1959. His work can be found in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
