• LIFE

Photographer Spotlight: Martha Holmes

3 minute read

Martha Holmes (b. Louisville, Ky., Feb. 7, 1923) was on the staff of LIFE for five years in the 1940s and worked for three decades as a freelancer for the magazine, producing work that, all these years later, remains remarkable for its variety. At the same time, a good many of her pictures, whether she was shooting pro athletes, artists, movie stars, animals or the House un-American Activities Committee, somehow manage to look and feel Holmesian—that is, amid the variety, her pictures often share a certain quality that stamps them as recognizably hers, and hers alone.

It’s not that Holmes imposed herself on her subjects. Far from it! Instead, her portraits of people and places routinely allowed the essence of whatever it was she was shooting to shine through. That one can view her disparate—in intent and in execution—portraits of, say, Jackson Pollock, the actress Joan Fontaine and a sextet of octogenarian singers, and find something familiar and similar in all of them, speaks to a talent that was certainly not lacking in confidence, or in vision.

Speaking of Pollock, and Holmes’ most famous picture of the artist (left, from 1949), it’s worth noting that 50 years after it was made, in 1999, the U.S. Postal Service used her image as the model for a 33-cent stamp — although, perhaps unsurprisingly, the stamp was issued without a cigarette dangling from the artist’s lips.

[MORE: See a gallery of Holmes’s pictures of Pollock and his wife and fellow artist, Lee Krasner, on Long Island in 1949]

Holmes herself, meanwhile, was hardly one to stand on ceremony or try, as a LIFE employee, to throw her weight around when it came to assignments.

One story has it that, while she was working for LIFE in California in the late 1940s, she was sent off to do a shoot on the Havasu Indians in the Grand Canyon region of the American southwest. Perfectly illustrating that even the greatest magazines sometimes run on completely erroneous assumptions, someone at LIFE evidently thought she’d be perfect for the Grand Canyon shoot because, with her Kentucky heritage, surely she must have horse-riding in her blood, and in the canyonlands she’d likely be on horseback a good percentage of the time.

As it turns out, Holmes had never even ridden a horse—but she quickly learned how while on assignment.

[MORE: See Holmes’s pictures of a cheerful “cult” of artists and others on Cape Cod in the 1940s]

In 1952, she married Arthur Waxman, who worked at NBC in New York and whom she met while on a shoot for LIFE. The wedding was photographed by the legendary Alfred Eisenstaedt, and was “one of the most photographed wedding in years” according to one newspaper story at the time.

Martha Holmes died at her home in Manhattan, at the age of 83, in September 2006.

BEMalaysian Airlines Flight MH370IX Special Prayers Held For Passengers And Crew Of Missing Malaysian Airliner
Mar. 18, 2014. A man recites the Koran after special prayers held for the missing Malaysian airliner MH370 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
The Princeton tiger gets expert instruction from Barbara Pettit, 1949.
The Princeton tiger gets expert instruction from Barbara Pettit, 1949.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Singer Billy Eckstine gets a hug from an adoring fan after a show in 1949. This was one of Martha Holmes's own favorite photographs.
Singer Billy Eckstine gets a hug from an adoring fan after a show in New York in 1949. This was one of Martha Holmes's own favorite photographs.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Ella Fitzgerald, New York City, 1949.
Ella Fitzgerald, New York City, 1949.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Masked Marvel, 1949.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Settlement house children sleep during a bus ride, 1949.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
A "fly-in" drive-in theater for airplanes and cars, 1949.
A "fly-in" drive-in theater for airplanes and cars, 1949.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
A Native American doctor, L. R. Minoka Hill, sews in her kitchen, 1949.
A Native American doctor, L. R. Minoka Hill, sews in her kitchen, 1949.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Long Island, 1949.
Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Long Island, 1949.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Milton Hood Ward (right) leads his "Activationist" followers on the dance floor, Cape Cod, 1948.
Milton Hood Ward (right) leads his "Activationist" followers on the dance floor, Cape Cod, 1948.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Central Park, 1948.
Central Park, 1948.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
The Ariel Sextet vocal group listens to the radio while having drinks, 1948.
The Ariel Sextet vocal group listens to the radio while having drinks, 1948.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mme. Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller (left) and Mrs. Oscar Ivanissevich arrive for opening night at the Metropolitan Opera, 1947.
Mme. Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller (left) and Mrs. Oscar Ivanissevich arrive for opening night at the Metropolitan Opera, 1947.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Howard Hughes testifies before the Senate War Investigation Committee in 1947.
Howard Hughes testifies before the Senate War Investigation Committee in 1947.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Joan Fontaine in "Ivy", 1947
Joan Fontaine in a scene with Richard Ney in the movie Ivy, 1947.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
From left: Danny Kaye, June Havoc and Humphrey Bogart, with wife Lauren Bacall sitting beside him, listen intently at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947.
From left: Danny Kaye, June Havoc and Humphrey Bogart, with wife Lauren Bacall sitting beside him, listen intently at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Gary Cooper (center) and Lilli Palmer with an unidentified actor (possibly Robert Alda) in a scene from Fritz Lang's Cloak and Dagger, 1946.
Gary Cooper (center) and Lilli Palmer with an unidentified actor (possibly Robert Alda) in a scene from Fritz Lang's Cloak and Dagger, 1946.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Girls from Hoover High School stand on their heads in gymnastics class, San Diego, Calif., 1946.
Girls from Hoover High School stand on their heads in gymnastics class, San Diego, Calif., 1946.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Bishop Arthur B. Kinsolving conducts an open air baptism in the Grand Canyon, 1946.
Bishop Arthur B. Kinsolving conducts an open air baptism in the Grand Canyon, 1946.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Actress Buff Cobb stretches, 1946.
Actress Buff Cobb stretches, 1946.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
James Stewart plays in man-made snow on the set of It's A Wonderful Life in 1946.
James Stewart plays in man-made snow on the set of It's A Wonderful Life in 1946.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Actress Cathy O'Donnell, 1945.
Actress Cathy O'Donnell, 1945.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Salvador Dali with his wife Gala, 1945.
Salvador Dali with his wife Gala, 1945.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Natalie Wood in the kitchen with her mother, Mrs. Nick Gurdin, 1945.
Natalie Wood in the kitchen with her mother, Mrs. Nick Gurdin, 1945.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Daughter of LIFE photographer Martha Holmes, Anne Holmes Waxman, taking a bath with her blanket, 1959.
Daughter of LIFE photographer Martha Holmes, Anne Holmes Waxman, taking a bath with her blanket, 1959.Martha Holmes—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney in a scene from Leave Her to Heaven, 1945.Martha Holmes—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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