Indeed, Floret’s subjects look like they are posing before someone who they believe appreciates them and will take care of them. 

Floret may have been able to connect with her subjects, most of whom are creative types, because she is an artist herself. In addition to being a photographer, she practices other visual arts, most notably sculpture. She says her interest in sculpture was an outgrowth of her portrait photography .

And Floret came to photography with a rich life experience. She was born in Paris in 1936, and four years later she and her parents had to flee that city when Germany invaded France. After moving from town to town for a year, she and her family sailed from Portugal to the United States, settling in St. Louis in 1941. Her nationality remained in important part of her identity. During World War II her family would host weekly brunches for French soldiers stationed at nearby Scott Air Force Base, where radio operators and technicians were trained. After Floret graduated college, her first professional work was teaching French. It tells you much about her convivial personality that, all these decades later, she is still in touch with some of her former students.

Floret, deciding she wanted an artistic life, later moved to New York. She briefly attempted to become an actress before finding her calling in photography. A couple LIFE photographers played key roles along the way. One of her formative experiences was taking a class at the New School with Phillipe Halsman. and it was John Dominis who helped pave her entry into the magazine world while he was working at PEOPLE.

Soon she was shooting photos of all sorts of artists, from Lynda Carter to Margaret Atwood.

In more than a few of Floret’s photos, she had the stars pose with their pets. For example, actress Nancy Marchand, who at the time was on the television show Lou Grant and would go on to play Olivia Soprano in The Sopranos, held her dog up close to her face. “The animals brought the pictures to life because the people loved them so much,” Floret said. “That was the case with Nancy Marchand.”

Floret has been reflecting on her career lately because she is currently in the process of completing a book that compiles her favorite photographs from her years with the magazine. Looking at all the portraits she shot of such talented and accomplished people has filled her with appreciation and wonder. 

“I just treasure the people that I photographed,” she says. “I am reliving the joy of the result of the experiences, and I feel appreciation for the generosity of the editors who gave the assignments, and the people who allowed me into their private lives to take these very personal photographs.”

Enjoy this selection of images from Floret that highight both the range of people she photographed and also the quality of her artistry.

Author Alex Haley writing as he sits in rocking chair on porch of house on his farm. Floret described Haley as “a treasure’ and said that she loved his quote, “If i knew what success would bring, I would have been typing faster.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Actress Nancy Marchand with her dog in 1982, when she was a regular on the television show “Lou Grant.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Gloria Vanderbilt in 1979. After trying shots with the models facing forward, photographer Evelyn Floret asked the models to turn around. “She was like a little flower with that pink satin blouse in the center of it all,” Floret said. “I knew i had the picture when i saw that.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Lynda Carter of Wonder Woman fame and Robert Altman enjoyed a picnic on the banks of the Potomac in 1983. They married in 1984, and remained together until his death in 2021. Floret says, “They were very much in love. It was a joy to be around them.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

For a story on George Way, an expert antiques collector who also worked at a deli counter, Floret photographed him in the bed in which he sleeps, an Elizabeth I from 1571. At the time of the shoot, in 1991, the bed was valued at $400,000.

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Martha Stewart posed outside of her Connecticut home in 1987, when she had just come out with a book on wedding cakes.

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Martha Stewart in 1987. Floret described Stewart as “delightful, compassionate, appreciative, kind, soft-spoken, and humble.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Author Margaret Atwood in her Toronto home with her cat Fluffy, 1989. “She was dazzling to me,” Floret said. “But I never felt intimidated by anyone I photographed. I just had this desire to do the best I could by them.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Harvey Fierstein with cast members of La Cage aux Folles, a show that he wrote, in 1984. He brought cast members to a studio at 18th and Broadway to be photographed. “That’s an example of the effort people made to give me a great photo,” Floret said.

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

George Shearing, the blind jazz pianist, rode with his wife Ellie in Central Park, 1979. After the photo shoot Shearing sent Floret a thank you note written in Braille.

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Attorney Roy Cohn, 1984. For Evelyn Floret this was the rare case of her photographing an individual with a notorious reputation, and that influenced the resulting photo. “Having him in that setting seemed appropriate,” she said. “It was just like a mixed message. You could draw your own conclusions. Live animal and stuffed animal, animal that was made out of china.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Midori in 1981, at age 11. Later that year, at a New Year’s Eve concert, she would perform a solo with the New York Philharmonic. She went on to become a great performer and advocate for music education.

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

Hugues de Montalembert was a painter who lost his sight after being attacked during a burglary in his New York apartment. He then turned to writing. Floret captured his spirit by photographing him riding a horse on a Long Island beach. Another horseman rode just out of view to guide De Montalambert along. Floret says, “I was nearly in tears while capturing this photo.”

Courtesy of Evelyn Floret

The post The Work of Evelyn Floret, a Master of Intimate Portraits appeared first on LIFE.

The show was enough of a phenomenon that before it even came to Broadway in 1972, LIFE magazine had already devoted a cover story to it, based on early stagings in London and other locations. And LIFE wrote about the show again when the Jesus Christ Superstar finally came to New York. This version of the musical had a more elaborate staging that made for some eye-popping photos by LIFE staff photogapher John Olson, But the magazine felt that these embellishments were a needless distraction. LIFE’s headline on its Oct. 22, 1972 story about the Broadway production was “`Superstar’ Becomes a Circus.'”

Here’s LIFE’s critique of that version of the show:

Thanks to director Tom O’Horgan, the stage floor doubles as a curtain, there are smoke machines laser beams and wind machines. People descend from the ceiling on intricate bridges and appear out of the floor wearing incredible costumes….Superstar’s appealing music and lyrics are still there, and there are compelling performances by Ben Vereen as Judas and Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene. But the humanness of Christ, a central concept of the work, has been buried under the ruck of show-biz gimmickry.

Even while enumerating what it saw as the production’s shortcomings, LIFE acknowledged that it would be a massive hit with audiences—which it was, and that set the stage for the film version.

Directed by Norman Jewison, the movie was filmed in locations around Israel and Palestine. LIFE staff photographer John Dominis was on set to document the making of the movie.

Alas, those photos never made it into the magazine. The movie came out in the summer of 1973, but by then LIFE ended its original run with its issue of Dec. 29, 1972.

Actor Jeff Fenholt as Jesus, wearing giant golden robe with followers seated around hem, is elevated with angels and Judas, played by actor Ben Vereen, on a wing-shaped set platform in a scene from the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar, 1972.

John Olson/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jeff Fenholt in his role as Jesus, surrounded by his disciples, in a scene from the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar, 1972.

John Olson/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jeff Fenholt, in his role as Jesus, is carried by his followers in the Palm Sunday scene from the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar, 1972.

John Olson/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ben Vereen as Judas hangs limply from a rope in a scene from the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar, 1972.

John Olson/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jeff Fenholt as Jesus in the Crucifixion scene from the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar, 1972.

John Olson/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actor Ted Neeley, as Jesus, in scene from the 1973 film Jesus Christ Superstar.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post The Arrival of Jesus Christ Superstar appeared first on LIFE.

Another one of the “experiments” in the issue featured Joy and Stan Potts, a couple who had what the magazine termed a “frontier partnership.”

Here’s how that partnership worked, as described by LIFE:

For three months each year they disappear into the Idaho Primitive Area where, as a team, they operate a commercial hunting camp. To do this they leave behind their three girls, ages 11, 12 and 17, who willingly—and successfully—remain entirely on their own at the alfalfa ranch the Pottses run in Nevada during the rest of the year.

Joy Potts said leaving the children on their own for so long benefited the kids as well as the parents. The kids, she said, learned to be independent. And running the camp together with her husband was good for their relationship. “Marriages get down in the dumps because people sort of ignore each other,” Joy told LIFE. “I know I am an important person to Stan.”

As for Stan, he told LIFE that the key to a happy marriage was sharing in everything—including the inevitable failures. “Then you know how it all works, that it’s not any one person’s fault,” he said. He added that if he were running the camp on his own, “It would be a lot more lonely and a lot harder without Joy, that’s for sure.”

The story was photographed by John Dominis, and he visited the Potts’ camp during Thanksgiving, when their daughters had come to visit. Their holiday dinner, which also included the hunters at the camp, looks as welcoming as it was rustic.

The Potts’ “frontier partnership” was an enduring one. In 2021 Stan and Joy were recognized by the Hall of Fame of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association, Salmon River Chapter. Later that same year Joy died at age 87, survived by her husband of 67 years. Her obituary included a delightful detail on how Joy and Stan first met, while she was Mackay, Idaho visiting family: “During that first conversation, she told him she milked cows, and he was hooked.” 

Joy and Stan Potts shared a light moment during Thanksgiving dinner at the hunting camp they ran in Idaho, 1972.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joy and Stan Potts leave their alfalfa farm and children three months a year to brave the frontier wilderness in Idaho. Here they and their daughters, on the left side of the table, enjoy a Thanksgiving feast, joined by hunters at the camp, 1972.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joy and Stan Potts would leave their alfalfa farm and children three months a year to run an Idaho hunting camp. Here Joy (second from right) handed out sandwiches to a hunting party before they set out, 1972.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joy Potts carried water from a stream to use for cooking and cleaning at the Idaho hunting camp that she and her husband ran, 1972.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joy Potts took a bath in water heated from a stove at the Idaho hunting camp that she and her husband Stan ran, 1972.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stan Potts chopped firewood at the hunting camp run by him and his wife Joy, 1972.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joy and Stan Potts, 1972.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joy and Stan Potts would leave their three daughters, ages 11, 12 and 17, at the family alfalfa farm for months at a time while they went off to run their hunting camp.

John Dominis/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post A Joyful Thanksgiving and a “Marriage Experiment” appeared first on LIFE.

The stars of the shoot were all women in their 20s who had come to the mountains to live the ski life.

Of course, dreams are often tempered by reality. The story, headlined “A Very Nice Kind of Ski Bum,” neatly summed up both the allure and the pitfalls of a move to Aspen:

They consider a skier’s life not to be a parenthetical experience but a real alternative to urban existence, one free from frustration, noise and the frustration of having to choose between marriage and a less than satisfying job. The only problem with Aspen is finding a way to survive.

In 1971 Aspen was not quite the playground for the rich that it is today (that status really took root in the 1980s), but the transition was in process, and it was being felt by the town’s working class. “Housing is practically non-existent and prices are tourist-level high,” LIFE wrote. One of the women in the Dominis photo essay said that she needed to work so many hours as a hotel maid to support herself that she barely had time to ski. Still, overall, the story painted a romantic picture of the adventure they had embarked on: “The women figure, why wait until you’re 40 to have fun.”

One of Dominis’ photos shows four young women sharing a one-bedroom apartment. That apartment certainly wouldn’t make it into the kind of stories you can find today on Aspen’s luxury homes—but it is a certain kind a paradise. Sure, it’s a mess, and the quarters are cramped. But the women don’t seem to care. It can be that way when you are taking a stab at living your dream.

These four women shared a one-bedroon apartment in Aspen, Colo., 1971

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sue Smedstad, who had come to Aspen six years previous, received a free ski pass as one of the perks of her job as statistician for the Aspen Skiing Corp., 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sue Smedstad drover her friends in her jeep as they searched for good snow in Aspen, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women tubed in Snowmass Mountain, Aspen. Colo., 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lyn Carlson came to Aspen, Colo., from Lousville, Ky., and supported herself by working the doors at an apres-ski club, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gail Ramsey moved from Wisconsin to Aspen to sing in a nightclub, but after her band broke up she ended up tending bar, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lisa Brooks, 24, came to Aspen for the ski life, but she made so little in her job as a chambermaid that she couldn’t do much skiing, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leslie Smith, 25, came to Aspen and started her own store, the Birdog Trading Co., when she found that employment opportunities were scarce, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carolyn Zinke, came to Aspen from Wisconsin with a teaching degree and, after a few years in the resort town she was proficient enough to gain work as a ski instructor, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1971 story on the many young women who moved to Aspen, Colo., to live and work

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Phyllis Garrett, 21, lived in a one-room mountain cabin after following her sister to Aspen, Colo., 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dawn Clark left a college study tour in Hong Kong to live the ski life in Aspen, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sandy Sollitt, 22, came to Aspen, Colorado from Chicago to enjoy the ski life, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a LIFE story on young women enjoying the ski life in Aspen, Colorado, 1971.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1971 story on the many young women who moved to Aspen, Colo., to live and work.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1971 story on the many young women who moved to Aspen, Colo., to live and work.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1971 LIFE story documented the influx of young women who had moved to Aspen, Colorado to live, work and ski.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Oh, To Be Young and in Aspen appeared first on LIFE.

There are many ways to measure just how big a deal Maria Callas was during her heyday, and one of them is how many LIFE photographers took their turn shooting her. The list is an impressive one, and it includes Gordon Parks, Margaret Bourke-White, John Dominis, Thomas McAvoy, James Burke and PIerre Boulat.

On one occasion Callas appeared in LIFE not as a subject of a story but rather as its author. In 1959 she took the magazine to defend herself in a piece titled “I Am Not Guilty of All Those Scandals.” She had been accused of feigning illness when she didn’t want to go on, demanding exorbitant rates and other incidents related to her stage career. Callas wrote that all those claims were untrue. She did, however, acknowledge that she was difficult to work with—a label she accepted with pride:

Of course, I am difficult. An artist who tries sincerely to meet the demands of operatic music must work under extraordinary tension. Great music cannot be achieved without hard work and high standards. If I were willing to accept second-best opera, if I did not care about quality, I could very easily establish a reputation for always being sweet, charming and amenable to every suggestion, a completely docile soprano in every respect. But that is too high a price to pay for such a reputation…I see no reason to pretend I am happy and cheerful about second-rate music—or about those who are willing to see it performed.

After going through a point-by-point rebuttal of various claims that went on for several pages, Callas concluded “I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not the devil, either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like to be so judged.”

In addition to her storied opera career, the magazine also wrote about Callas’s personal life, including in 1959 when she separated from her husband, Italian industrialist Giovanni Meneghini, and was whisked away on a private jet by Aristotle Onassis. LIFE reported in ’59 that Callas got to know Onassis “when she and her husband cruised the Mediterranean in his yacht in a party that included Sir Winston and Lady Churchill and Onassis’s 28-year-old wife Tina.”

Onassis would in 1968 famously leave Callas for Jacqueline Kennedy. Callas’s relationship with Onassis is central to the Angelina Jolie’s movie—which is directed by Pablo Larrain, who also directed the 2016 biopic Jackie.

Maria Callas following a performance of Norma at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, 1954.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opera singer Maria Callas at a post performance gala following her opening night performance of the opera “Norma” at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, 1954.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opera singer Maria Callas discussed her performance with director Nicola Rescigno, 1954.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas performed in the opera Norma at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas applied makeup to a mannequin version of herself, 1956.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas spoke to the press after a U.S. performance of Medea, 1958.

Thomas McAvoy/LIfe PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas performed as Medea at at the ancient Greek theater Epidauris, 1961.

James Burke/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opera singer Maria Callas during filming of movie Medea, 1969.

Pierre Boulat/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas during filming of movie Medea, 1969.

Pierre Boulat/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of Maria Callas during the filming of the movie ‘Medea’, Turkey, 1969.

Pierre Boulat/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Angelina Jolie’s Inspiration: Maria Callas in LIFE appeared first on LIFE.

But in addition to revealing a little (or a lot of) leg, these photos of skirts also show something else. They highlight the many different approaches that great photographers can take to a subject.

For instance, the pictures of John Dominis and Carlo Bavagnoli in this collection take a documentary approach to fashion, showing skirt-wearing women as they moved about the world. Then there was Gjon Mili, a master technician who brought models into his studio, where his use of strobe lighting created images that are as striking as they are distinctive.

Then there are photographers such as Nina Leen and Gordon Parks, who took an approach that is somewhere between the two, placing their models out in the world but crafting images that are as stylish as the clothing trends they sought to illustrate.

See for yourself. Like the skirts themselves, the variation adds to the fascination.

Circle skirts, 1950.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE magazine’s original caption: “Surrounded by a skirt full of her own pretty face, model Norma Richter shows off dress made especially to demonstrate photographic fabrics.”

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A French model showed a small print dress with triple-flounced skirt and long sleeves by designer Jacques Fath, Paris 1951.

Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Fashion, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A polka dotted smock top over black skirt by Balenciaga, Paris, 1951.

Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model showing skirt featuring three-tiers of ruffles, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Photo from a story on Big Ten college fashions, Bloomington, Indiana, 1954.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The new skirts of 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Space fashions rushed onto the market in 1957 included skirts, jackets, hats, and balloons with a satellite motif.

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Kansas high school student wore a mini skirt, 1969.

Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

In 1950 career girl hostess Joan Wilson wore a cotton circle skirt that retailed for $17.95.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Skirt fashions, 1938.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The New York Look, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a story on summer beach fashions, 1950.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion shoot, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C., April 1947.

Martha Holmes/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From an April 20, 1942, LIFE story about proper skirt-hem lengths.

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

In Columbus, Missiissippi, coffee was served on porch of ante-bellum mansion, Riverview, by young ladies wearing hoop skirts at a party for cadets from the local Army flying school, 1953.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cotton skirt, New York City, 1941.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Model Dorian Leigh showed off the accordion pleats of a straight-hanging sheer dress (Jane Derby, $250) which could swirl into a ten-yard circle of flesh-colored chiffon, 1950.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A double image from a story on college fashions, 1948.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Employees of Saks Fifth Avenue watching a fashion show promoting midi-length skirts, 1970.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actor Rock Hudson (center) sitting on MGM lot with eight midi-skirted starlets who play opposite him in the Roger Vadim-directed film Pretty Maids All In a Row.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

A women in a miniskirt considered the midi-skirt look, 1970.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Short skirts hit London, 1966

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Short skirts hit the street of London, 1966

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Skirted Subjects: Classic Images from LIFE appeared first on LIFE.