Bert Morgan (photojournalist)
Bert Morgan (1904–1986) was a British-born American photojournalist who covered the world of high society in Manhattan, Long Island, Saratoga, New York, Palm Beach, Florida, Newport, and points in between from the 1930s to the 1980s
Career
Bert Morgan began his photography career at age fifteen as a syndication salesman for the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News. He began working as a full-time free lance photographer in 1930, specializing in high society events including weddings, polo matches, horse shows, private parties and charity balls. His work was regularly published in magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Town and Country and The Social Spectator. By promising never to publish an unflattering picture he gained special access to the rarefied world of America's most prominent families - Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Biddles, Astors, Kennedys, Fords, Roosevelts - as well as European royalty and stars of the stage and screen. In 1940, he was appointed official photographer for the New York Racing Association. In the 1950s he began traveling south every year to Palm Beach for the "season" and eventually moved there full-time and covered the social scene, working alongside his son Richard (1935-2012).
Books
- Dog Shows (2000)
- Horse Racing: The Golden Age of the Track (2001)
- Young Jackie (2002)
- Southampton Blue Book, 1930 to 1960: Photographs By Bert Morgan (2014)
References
- Bert Morgan: Best of Breed
- About.com Horse Racing
- Chronicle Books
- NY Times - Icons at Leisure in Long-Ago Summers
- Palm Beach Daily News - Society Photographer Richard Morgan Dies
- Sag Harbor Online - A Photographic Record of the Southampton Summer Colony
- Dan's Papers - Southampton’s Blue Book Examined at Historical Museum
- Exhibit Opening Reception: Southampton Blue Book, 1930 to 1960: Photographs by Bert Morgan