c. 1933-1934

Night Club, New York

American, 1893 - 1947

Lohse, a painter and graphic designer, became a noted photographer of New York nightlife during the 1930s. Armed with a 35 mm camera fitted with a right-angle viewfinder-which allowed him to photograph his subjects without their knowledge-Lohse frequented burlesque clubs, boxing rings, and theaters. His candid images were published in magazines including Vanity Fair and Vogue. Often blurry and stark in tone, the photographs convey the heady atmosphere and raw energy of post-Prohibition Manhattan, simultaneously exposing the artifice of the stage. Of the entertainers he photographed, Lohse claimed, "They all grin like anything at the public. In the dressing room there isn't one who grins."