Julian Mandel and the Ladies of Paris

No one is precisely sure who photographer Julian Mandel was. Most everyone is sure the famed photographer of tasteful and meticulously posed nudes was a pseudonym, but no one is certain for whom. Some people think he may have been Julian Walery, another photographer who meticulously lighted his subjects, but used a pseudonym when he worked in the erotic postcard market.


Of course, during his heyday, they were sold as pornography, but they possess a really lovely old master sheen.



What is odd, is that they were signed at all, and all of Mandel's postcards were, prominently. It is thought he died in 1935.