Transfixed by Celebrity

Van Vechten was transfixed by celebrity. As a small boy he collected autographs and pasted photos of actresses into his scrapbooks; as an adult he dropped names shamelessly, and made lists in his daybooks of the famous people he met at parties. To Van Vechten all publicity was self-publicity, and he took great vicarious pleasure in transforming an obscure artist into an international star, tying himself to their public image in the process. Often his photographs were an emphatic expression of that same impulse; an opportunity to immortalize his connection to the exceptional and celebrated.