Anna May Wong Photographic Portraits

Anna May Wong Photographic Portraits

14  black & white photographic portraits of Anna May Wong (1905-1961) taken by photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964).
 

About Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong was Born in 1905, Wong was the daughter of a Chinese immigrant who ran a Los Angeles laundry.

In 1921,  at the age of 16, Anna May Wong became the first widely recognized Asian-American film star. In 1951, she also became the first Asian-American to have her own television series, “The Gallery of Madame Liu Tsong.”

As simultaneously a star, yet one whose roles were necessarily limited, at least in the studio’s view, by ethnicity, Wong’s career oscillated between major roles and character parts or exotic bits in Chinatown or far eastern scenes. As a result she played the romantic lead in “The Toll of the Sea” (1922), a seductive spy opposite Douglas Fairbanks in “The Thief of Bagdad” (1924), and a barmaid temptress in “Across to Singapore” (1928).

On February 3, 1961, at the age of 56, Wong died of a heart attack as she slept at home in Santa Monica.

 
About Carl Van Vechten

Carl Van Vechten was primarily known as a music and dance critic and novelist, Van Vechten gained a reputation as a theatrical and society photographer. Many of the sitters were acquaintances of Van Vechten; he photographed them in his studio, in private sittings, and also at social gatherings.