Fotofolio

In 1975, the American company Fotofolio / Artpost started to publish the history of photography in postcard format. Nowadays the Fotofolio collection is simply amazing. The New York-based publisher worked closely with great photographers - and their foundations - such as Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, Robert Mapplethorpe, Philippe Halsman, Annie Leibovitz, Greg Gorman, and many others. Fotofolio also partners with international museums to reproduce photos from their collections, and you can buy the cards in many museum shops. We selected for this post 18 Fotofolio postcards with portraits of film stars or/and their directors.


American postcard by Fotofolio, no. P43, 1978. Photo: Bob Landry / Life. Caption. Montgomery Clift, 1948.

Handsome American actor Montgomery Clift (1920-1966) was one of Hollywood's first Method actors. He starred in films like the Western Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951), From Here To Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953) and Suddenly, Last Summer (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959), in which he co-starred for the third time with Elizabeth Taylor. A near-fatal auto accident in 1957 changed his looks and sent him into a drug and alcohol addiction. Clift died in 1966.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. P 254. Photo: Terry O'Neill, 1975.

English musician and actor David Bowie (1947-2016) was a major pop star for over four decades. Particularly during the 1970s, he was an influential innovator. He also earned acclaim with various stage and film roles.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. P 255. Photo: Terry O'Neill / Hamiltons Gallery, London. Caption: Mae West, Hollywood, 1970. Publicity still for Myra Breckinridge (Michael Sarne, 1970).

Blonde Mae West (1895-1982) was a seductive, overdressed, endearing, intelligent, and sometimes vulgar American actress and sex symbol. She featured a come-hither voice, aggressive sexuality, and a genius for comedy. West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in such films as I’m No Angel (1933), She Done Him Wrong (1933), and Klondike Annie (1936). She was one of the first women in the cinema to consistently write the films she starred in.


American card by Fotofolio, New York, no. P 287. Photo: Terry O'Neill, 1975.

Elton John (1947) is an English singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, record producer, and occasional actor. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career, Sir Elton Hercules John CBE had more than fifty Top 40 hits and has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. PH 18, 1981. Photo: Philippe Halsman, 1962 / Hastings Galleries Collection. Alfred Hitchcock at the set of The Birds (1963).

British director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) was known as 'The Master of Suspense'. He is one of the most influential and extensively studied filmmakers in the history of cinema. He had his first major success with The Lodger (1926), a silent thriller loosely based on Jack the Ripper. Hitchcock came to international attention with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), and, most notably, The Lady Vanishes (1938). His first Hollywood film was the multi-Oscar-winning psychological thriller Rebecca (1940). Many classics followed including Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), North by Northwest (1959) and The Birds (1963). In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films which garnered a total of 46 Oscar nominations and 6 wins.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. RA24. Photo: Richard Avedon, 1972. Caption: Jean Renoir, Director, Beverly Hills, California, 4-11-72.

Jean Renoir (1894-1979) was one of the major French film directors before WW II. His films La Grande Illusion/The Great Illusion (1937) and La Règle du Jeu/The Rules of the Game (1939) belong to the masterpieces of French cinema. During the German invasion of France in 1941, he moved to Hollywood where he directed This Land Is Mine (1943), and The Southerner (1945). He later became an American citizen.


British postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. M 12. Photo: Bob Gruen. Caption: New York City, 1974.

English musician, singer, and songwriter John Lennon (1940-1980) rose to worldwide fame with The Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of pop. With Paul McCartney, he formed a songwriting partnership that is one of the most celebrated of the 20th century. When the group disbanded in 1970, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band' and 'Imagine'.


American postcard by Portfolio, New York, no. P 402. Photo: Christopher Makos. Caption: Divine, 1978.

Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by his stage name Divine (1945-1988), was an American actor, singer, and drag queen. He was closely associated with the independent filmmaker John Waters. Divine became the international icon of bad taste cinema.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. P 432. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe, 1988.

American actress Meryl Streep (1949) is one of the best actresses of her generation, known for her versatility and accents. She has been nominated for the Oscar an astonishing 21 times and has won it three times. Among her other accolades, she has received 32 Golden Globe nominations, more than any other person, and won eight.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. Z 325. Photo: Annie Leibovitz. Caption: Jodie Foster, Malibu, California, 1988. Proceeds from the sale of this card donated to AIDS organisations.

American actress, director, and producer Jodie Foster (1962) has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the Cecil B DeMille Award. A child prodigy, Foster began her professional career at the age of 3. Foster's breakthrough came at 14 with Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Taxi Driver (1976). She played a child prostitute, for which she received an Oscar nomination. As an adult, she won new acclaim with The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Nell (1994). She later starred in four thrillers, Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006), and The Brave One (2007), which were commercially successful and well-received by critics. She has focused on directing in the 2010s.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. HR 9. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Richard Gere, San Bernardino, 1979. Courtesy Fahey / Klein Gallery Los Angeles. Proceeds of the sale of this card benefit The American Foundation For Aids Research.

American actor Richard Gere (1949) has been hailed as "The Sexiest Man alive" and a humanitarian, but he is foremost a good actor. He shone in such box office hits as American Gigolo (1980), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), and Pretty Woman (1990). For portraying Billy Flynn in the Academy Award-winning musical Chicago (2002), he won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the cast.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. HR 62. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Sean Connery, Hollywood, 1989.

Scottish superstar Sean Connery (1930-2020) is best known as the original secret agent 007, starring in seven James Bond films between 1962 and 1983. His film career also included such notable films as Marnie (1964), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Untouchables (1987), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Connery won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and also a BAFTA Award.


American postcard by Fotofolio, no. F 829. Photo: Herb Ritts. Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990).

American actor Johnny Depp is one of the most versatile actors in today's Hollywood. He made his film debut as one of Freddy Krueger's victims in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). With his dark, intense eyes and highly defined cheekbones, he shot to fame as a teen idol in the TV series 21 Jump Street (1987). He is now best known for his many wonderful collaborations with director Tim Burton, and for his flamboyant pirate Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of Caribbean franchise. He likes to play freakishly eccentric outcasts whose oddities are misunderstood by society. Depp has been nominated for three Oscars and has won the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Actor.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. HR 73. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Al Pacino, New York City, 1992.

During the 1970s, American actor Al Pacino (1940) established himself with such films as The Godfather (1972), Serpico (1973), The Godfather: Part II (1974), and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). In the following decades, he became an enduring icon of American cinema. He won the Triple Crown of Acting: an Oscar for Best Actor for Scent of a Woman (1992); a Tony for Best Supporting Actor in the play 'Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?' (1969) and for Best Actor in the play 'The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel' (1977); and an Emmy for Best Actor in the Miniseries Angels in America (2003).


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. F 429. Photo: Herb Ritts. Caption: Antonio Banderas, Malibu, 1994.

Charismatic Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer Antonio Banderas (1960) began his acting career at age 19 with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar. He became an internationally known Latin heartthrob with high-profile Hollywood films including Philadelphia (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Desperado (1995), Evita (1996), The Mask of Zorro (1998), and the Shrek sequels.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, no. GG 16. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Michelle Pfeiffer, Los Angeles, 1988. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research

American actress and producer Michelle Pfeiffer (1958) was one of the most popular and talented Hollywood actresses of the 1980s and 1990s. Noted for her versatility as a character actress, Pfeiffer has become particularly known for portraying nuanced and unglamorous, emotionally distant women as well as strong female characters with intense sex appeal.


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York, N.Y., no. JC13. Photo: John Chan, 1988.

Blonde and blue-eyed American actress Uma Thurman (1970) is best known for her roles in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) and was hailed as Tarantino's muse. Furthermore, she starred in a wide variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films.


American postcard by Fotofolio, no. 2859. Photo: Milton H. Greene. Caption: Gene Kelly, Los Angeles, 1959. Gene Kelly in The Happy Road (Gene Kelly, 1957).

Source: Fotofolio.