Winston Churchill’s Picnics on the Warfront (1943 & 1945)

Winston Churchill’s Picnics on the Warfront (1943 & 1945)

In February 1943, when the Allies defeated the Nazis in North Africa. To celebrate, Churchill flew to Tripoli for a victory parade. Enjoying the victory, Churchill, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, and other senior officers of the Eighth Army enjoyed a casual picnic...
George Platt Lynes’ Picnic at Tintagel (1954)

George Platt Lynes’ Picnic at Tintagel (1954)

I know only this photograph by George Platt Lynes of Cecil Beaton’s set for Frederick Ashton’s ballet Picnic at Tintagel. Ashton’s story of the doomed love affair of Tristram and Isuelt begins circa 1916 and then devolves into the mythological time when Tristan falls...
4-CV Roadside Picnic (1954)

4-CV Roadside Picnic (1954)

Have a motorcar, have a picnic. Featured Image: Roger-Viollet Agency. Couple Seated before a 4CV. Camargue (France) ( 1954) (File 340.2); http://www.roger-viollet.fr/agence.aspx
William Klein’s Fashion Models at a Picnic (1958)

William Klein’s Fashion Models at a Picnic (1958)

When Aaron Schuman asked Klein if he dreamed  in black and white, Klein shot back, “In black and white, of course.” But his photograph Tatiana + Marie Rose + Camels, Morocco, he had it both ways.  Featured Image:  William Klein. Tatiana + Marie Rose + Camels, Morocco,...
Robert Frank’s Picnic Ground-Glendale, California (1959)

Robert Frank’s Picnic Ground-Glendale, California (1959)

Frank’s Picnic Ground-Glendale, California (1959) captures American youth and the motorcar culture circa 1955-1956. It’s direct and unmediated, serving his intention to portray Americans as they are. The couples congregate in front of their cars. Because they are...
Gary Winogrand’s White Sands Monument (1964)

Gary Winogrand’s White Sands Monument (1964)

Winogrand’s photograph White Sands Monument is a stunning view of a picnic table in the White Sands Monument National Monument in New Mexico. The white dunes are composed of powdery gypsum. The figures have left their Chevrolet and set out a picnic lunch under the...
Pierre Franey’s Chefs’ Picnic on Gardiners Island (1965)

Pierre Franey’s Chefs’ Picnic on Gardiners Island (1965)

Franey, executive chef of Le Pavilion, New York’s only four-star restaurant, and Craig Claiborne, the New York Times food critic, planned an August picnic on Gardiners Island. * It was staged in August 1965 and ironically reported in a Life magazine issue...
Tony Ray-Jones’ Picnic at Glyndebourne (1967)

Tony Ray-Jones’ Picnic at Glyndebourne (1967)

Ray-Jones’ attitude towards life was to expose its “gentle madness” and “to walk, like Alice, through a Looking-Glass, and find another kind of world with the camera.” He preferred  to photograph situations that are “ambiguous and unreal, and the juxtaposition of...
Nan Goldin’s CZ and Max on the Beach, Truro, MA  (1976)

Nan Goldin’s CZ and Max on the Beach, Truro, MA (1976)

Goldin’s is a spoof at Mickey Mouse’s expense. “CZ and Max on the Beach, Truro, MA” is a staged picnic of CZ and Max on a picnic cloth next to Mickey Mouse’s picture on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. Goldin seems to be suggesting that such outings are...