George Hoyningen Huene

Born: St Petersburg, Russia, 1900
Died: Los Angeles, U.S., 1968

George Hoyningen Huene was born in 1900 in St Petersburg, Russia as only son of the Baron Barthold Theodor Herman won Hoyningen Huene and Emily Ann Lothrop.

During the Russian Revolution, he fled with his family to London before leaving for Istanbul in 1919 in his British uniform as an interpreter to General Briggs.

He returned to join his family in Biarritz in 1921. He then took an apartment in Paris and began photography and sketching for his dressmaking sister.

By 1925 he had already reached the position of chief photographer of the French edition of Vogue Magazine.

He met Horst P Horst in 1931 who became his model and lover. During the winter, they travelled together to England and visited Cecil Beaton who worked in London for the British edition of Vogue Magazine.

In 1935, Hoyningen moved to New York working with Harper’s Bazaar most of his time there. There he decided to become an American Citizen.

He travelled extensively and published many art books on the countries he visited (Africa, Greece, Spain and Mexico.)

In 1946 he relocated to Hollywood where he began working as a teacher by giving photography lessons at the Art Center School before working for Hollywood’s film industry as a special visual and color consultant.

In 1954 he worked on George Cukor’s film “A star is born” starring Judy Garland and then again on several other films by the same director as “Les Girls” in 1957, starring Kay Kondall and Mitzi Gaynor, “Heller in Pink Tights” in 1960 starring Sophia Loren and finally in 1962 on “The Chapman Report”.

Hoyningen died in 1968 in Los Angeles.

George Hoyningen Huene Biography