Loomis Dean

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Loomis Dean (September 19, 1917 – December 7, 2005)^[1] was a veteran Life Magazine photographer^[2] who shot pictures of circus clowns, crown princes, celebrities, Madagascar lemurs, and SS Andrea Doria survivors in a five-decade long career. His low-key manner disarmed his subjects and put them at ease, enabling Dean capture such images as the prince of Liechtenstein in his long johns and Noël Coward in a tuxedo in the desert.^[1]

Early life[]

Loomis was the son of a grocer and a schoolteacher, and originally from Monticello, Florida. He became fascinated with photography while watching a friend print a photograph in a darkroom, and later chose to study photography at the in Rochester, New York.

His first photography job in 1938 was advance man and photographer for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was an Army Air Forces photographer in the Pacific Ocean duringWorld War II, and he later got his first job as a press agent for the Ringling Brothers circus. He rode the circus train across the country, shooting clowns, acrobats and lion tamers and processing his pictures in hotel bathtubs.

Life magazine[]

In 1947, he joined the staff of Life, photographing people such as Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, Noël Coward, Ernest Hemingway, and Liberace.^{[citation needed]} He also shot pictures of royal weddings, popes, fashion shows, riots and wars. In 1956, while sailing to Paris to take a job in the magazine's bureau there, Dean photographed the sinking and the rescue of passengers from the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria.^[1]

In 1965, out of 400 contestants, Dean won the in the Vatican's . The winning color photograph showed white-robed bishops bearing the pope's tiara marching in solemn procession through St. Peter's Square. It appeared in Life on November 2, 1962.^[1]

After Life[]

After Life magazine folded in 1972, he worked freelance for movie studios and news magazines. He also was an accomplished sailor and a collector of cameras. At any given time, he rarely had fewer than three cameras around his neck.

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