Sergei Balkin's Fashion Photos of the 1940s (36 photos)

Our mothers and grandmothers were able to hold glossy magazines featuring beauties in gowns from famous fashion houses only in the 1990s. But in the West, fashion photography and fashion photographers were already flourishing in the 1940s. One of them was Sergei Balkin, a photographer who collaborated with Vogue magazine for over 20 years. He was the creator of many famous images for fashion magazines, including the photographs in this collection.





All that is known about Sergei Balkin is that he was born on October 5, 1905, and grew up in St. Petersburg. From there, he fled to Europe, and from there, probably in the late 1930s, he left Rotterdam for the United States. There, by the early 1940s, Sergei had found work as a photographer at Vogue in New York, where he was taken under the wing of the publication's art director, Alexander Liberman.

Most of Sergei's photographs date from the 1940s and 1950s. Many of them can be viewed, and reproductions can be purchased, on the Condé Nast website. Sergei was married to émigré Nina Lin, about whom very little is known, despite the fact that she was much more successful than her husband and that even more of her photographs have survived. Moreover, she is the author of many different photo books.



Vogue, October 1944

Actress Carol Landis, Vogue, 1945



Model Bijou Barrington, Glamor, 1945



Vogue, 1945



Vogue, January 1945



Vogue, April 1945



Vogue, 1945



Glamor, 1946



Model Charlotte Payne, 1946



Model Dorian Leigh, Glamour 1946



Vogue, 1946



Vogue, December 1946



Model Lily Carlson, Vogue, August 1946



Photo by Serge Balkin 1946



Photo Serge Balkin, 1946



Glamor, 1946



Vogue, 1946



Photo by Serge Balkin, 1946



Photo Serge Balkin, 1946



Glamor, 1946



Glamor, December 1946



Actress Bambi Lynn, Glamor, 1947



Vogue, March 1947



Model Joan Pedersen, Vogue, July 1947



Model Meg Mundy, 1947



Photo by Serge Balkin, 1947



Vogue, March 1947



Model Sandra Nelson 1948



Glamor, 1948



Glamor, 1948



Glamor, 1948



Vogue, 1949



Vogue, January 1949



Vogue, 1949



Glamor, 1949