I have been searching for some time for photographs of my favorite dancers and have been building up quite a little collection, but Google Images, Yahoo Images and even Corbis stock photography can only do so much. I was wondering if anyone knew what other websites or venues existed with good (and prominent) ballet photography, or if any of the photographers mentioned on the "Who are your favorite ballet photographers?" thread have their own websites? I know Rosalie O'Connor does. Or perhaps other photographers affiliated with major companies..(ie. ABT..)?

Thanks very much

If you're interested in Bolshoi and Mariinsky dancers, photographer Aleksei Brajnikov's site:

http://www.bolshoi.net/photos/brajnikov/page-prima.htm

offers many fairly large photos. On the upper right there are nine lines listing dancers in alphabetical order. Click on a line and their photos appear. Click on photos to enlarge.

As a photographer, it's great to see that there is such an appreciation for capturing the art on film. St. Louis Ballet (www.stlouisballet.org) has been kind enough to use my work. Feel free to pop around.

Best,
32tendu

For a real change of pace, how about non-dance photos by a dancer? Here are 28 from a current exhibition in St. Petersberg. Click on each to enlarge. The photographer is a fairly well-known dancer:

http://www.baryshnikovphotography.com/about/photos2.html

Have you tried http://www.ballerinagallery.com ?

But please be aware of copyright issues, and fair dealing with (hard working/starving) artists' works! There's guidance to this on the "other" ballet board - ballet.co.uk where they are very strict about linking to sites where photographs are plagiarised or used without the photographer's permission.

The Russian photographer Dmitri Kulikov often succeeds in capturing a sense of movement and/or emotional intensity that can be more illuminating than stock poses or "exactly correct" timing.
He conveys the sense of movement in Lopatkina's arms-as-wings very nicely:
http://www.bolshoi.net/photos/kulikov/page-lopatkina.htm
And has some intense photos of Maximova and Vasiliev:
http://www.bolshoi.net/photos/kulikov/page-maximova.htm
Many more photos of dancers, past and present, may be accessed on his site by clicking on their names in the upper right corner. Clicking on a photo will enlarge it and often expand the view.

Giselle05,

In response to your request for ballet photography web sites, I have a number of ballet photographs on my new web site ballet-photography.com. These are mostly photographs of the Washington Ballet, but include a number of "prominent" dancers, often before they became well known.

These include:

Stephanie Walz, when she was with the "Young Dancers of the Washington Ballet", later with ABT

Hilary Canary, later with ABT (note: I believe her name was changed when she joined ABT, I am not sure what it was changed to; if anyone can tell me I would appreciate that)

Amanda McKerrow, sho starred with the WB and later went to ABT

John Goding, who was (and still is) a long time principal with the WB

Most of these photographs were taken quite a few years ago, but I am more interested in the design and composition of the image, rather than who the dancers are. I have many more that I like and have exhibited as fine art images, and I will be adding some more of them to the web site as I find time. I also did photograph Paloma Herrera for Dance Magazine when she was performing in Washington a few years back, but she is not yet on my web site. Some ballet photographs are also on my general photography web site at DonBeckerPhoto.com .

I hope one or more of these dancers are on your "favorites" list.

donb

donb, we might be better able to identify Hilary Canary by her other name if we could get a better shot of her face. You have any you're willing and able to post? Another option for you, if you're really interested in pursuing it, is checking the head shots at ABT.org's Dancers page.

Thanks for inserting the link to BalletTalk on your site!

Hillary (Canary) Ryan doesn't dance with ABT now, so her pic is not on the website. She was a contemporary of Kevin McKenzie, Marianna Tcherkassky, Bonnie Moore, Peter Fonseca. Here's an excerpt from one of BT's reviews from 1998 (scroll down to October 1st):


The whole review, written by Alexandra Tomalonis, is here:
Review

Here's a picture from 25 years ago where Canary's face is clearer:
Hilary Canary

Her name has been spelled both with one "l" and two, and I'm not sure which is right.

Just a warning about Bolshoi.net -- I went to the site and after reading some of the reviews, found it to be very distasteful. It is a thinly disguised trashing of everyone that is not Natalya Bessmertnova or Yuri Grigorivich. The "reviews" are cruel, with inevitable negative comparisons to Bessmertnova.

The links to Bolshoi.net are links to the photo part of the site, per Ballet Talk policy. The photos are what is relevant to this thread.

This site has probably the best collection of photos, both historical and modern, that I have ever seen. It's truly a treasure.

Great site, canbelto!

The photo under "Nureyev" of Fonteyn and Nureyev Paradis perdu is amazing.



(Unsolicited advice for those opening it at work or anywhere else where you might need to be inconspicuous: turn the volume on your computer/speakers to "off." There's music on the site, and I think I just startled a co-worker to death.)

Also great is the collection called "ballets." You click on each ballet and there are photos, historical and modern, of the ballet. My personal favorite is "Jewels." There's a photograph of Mr. B with his original Jewels - Violette Verdy, Patricia McBride, and Suzanne Farrell. Also fascinating is the picture of the original Apollo - Serge Lifar. He looks nothing like the blond gods that now seem to be standard for the role. Wonderful pictures of Karsavina and Nijinsky. It's really just an amazing site, although, like Helene, I have to turn my computer to mute.

Yes, thanks, canbelto.

I've only dipped into the Nureyev section. Several of the photos, including a kneeling Fonteyn supporting an upside down Nureyev in Petit's Paradise Lost, are found in the Solway biography.

Missing, however, is a shot of what Solway describes as follows:

"In its most memorable sequence, Rudolf circled the stage with a loping run before diving headfirst through the huge scarlet lips of a large female face, 'the kind of thing,' wrote Fonteyn, 'that really only happens in French ballets."

I also like the comparison illustrations. For instance, Carlotta Grisi in Esmeralda followed by an astonishingly different Marie Agnes Gillot in Petit's Notre Dame de Paris.

This is a site worth perusing slowly, especially if you know some Italian. The synthesizer music is probably something to avoid, however.

I'm sorry I had already posted here but now I realized that my post fits more in "my Fvourite Photographs", so I'm going to move it here.

Gene Schiavone has a new series of photos done in the studio of Anastasia and Denis Matvienko of the Kiev and Bolshoi Ballets:

http://www.geneschiavone.com/gallery/album09

He has some incredible photos there of this amazing couple. Has anyone seen them dance? Don't these photos make you want to see them perform?

I saw the Matvienkos dance together at the Stars of the 21st Century Gala at Lincoln Center on February 15th, 10 days ago. I thought they were truly amazing, although there were a couple of reviewers who didn't share my views. It seemed to me that for these reviewers, it was more of a 'if you love the Americans, you've gotta hate the Russians" kind of mentality informing their opinions.

Denis had the Bolshoi flash and fire and wowed the crowd with his unbelievable turning jumps, taking his Diana and Actaeon variation to a whole new level of "can you beat this?" Anastasia is blessed with a long, sinewy body that looks great even when she's just standing there. Her technique, as his, is impeccable. His (multiple) pirouettes are straight on, her musicality takes her faultlessly from movement to movement. They appear quite dynamic together, he with his blond, she with her dark hair. I certainly recommend seeing them!

Edited to add: I just looked through the Matvienko photos at the Schiavone gallery and WOW! They are stunning, each and every one of them. I think these are Schiavone's best pics on the internet!