Ethel Sager, Garden of Dreams, circa 1925
Vintage gelatin silver print
November 21, 2022
This lyrical portrait is a fine example of Soichi Sunami’s work collaborating with modern dancers. Featured above is Ethel Sager, who was a professional dancer in New York City in the 1920s and 30s. Sager made her biggest splash in a Broadway production of George White's Scandals in 1925, a long running theater revue that served up a fizzy combination of original music, theatrical sketches, and dancing girls. This picture is unique within Sunami's oeuvre for its incorporation of the swirling decorative painting in the background and elegantly curving vine. There is a charming neo-classical mood to the scene that resembles Maxfield Parrish's paintings, which frequently graced magazine covers from the period.
Soichi Sunami was born in Japan in 1885 and emigrated to the United States where he had a long and accomplished career as a photographer. His early collaborations with dancers like Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham are among the defining documents of early modern dance in America. In 1930, the newly formed Museum of Modern Art hired Sunami as their lead archival photographer, a position which he held for 38 years.
