Carol Kino’s Double Click: Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines

Double Click: Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines
Carol Kino
Scribner, 2024

Carol Kino delivers a fascinating cultural history of mid-twentieth century publishing, fashion photography, and feminism through the lives of two remarkable women and identical twin sisters, Frances (“Franny”) and Kathryn (“Fuffy”) McLaughlin. The twins’ photographs graced the pages of leading publications such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar for well over a half century, but they have since been largely forgotten while their male colleagues (like Irving Penn and Richard Avedon) have achieved lasting fame. In this richly detailed biography, Kino demonstrates in light and elegant prose the important role that women played during the “Golden Age of Magazines,” and writes them back into the history of that time.

Kino takes us all the way back to the twins’ childhood in Wallingford, Connecticut and a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, where they both developed a love of photography. From their early days as students at the Pratt Institute where they were finalists in the prestigious Prix de Paris to their rise to the top of their field, the author charts how the twins’ careers reflected a changing society that offered women greater freedom and career opportunities. By the mid-1940s the twins were among the most successful fashion photographers in America. Frances worked for several decades at Glamour and Vogue, and became the first female photographer on staff at Condé Nast. Not to be outdone, Kathryn’s street scenes and portraits filled the pages of publications such as Charm and Mademoiselle. Kino’s judicious use of archival footage, interviews, and research into the period paints a rich portrait of the rarified world of fashion and women’s magazines.

While their early work tended to be similar, in time the two women did develop their own individual styles. The photographs reproduced in the book include Kathryn’s clever cover page for Coronet of her son Eli eating an apple suspended in air. Kathryn was generally the more daring of the two, as evidenced, for example, in her shot of Betsy Drake on the Lower East Side posing in front of an effigy of a Japanese soldier hanging from a fire escape; or in her dramatic photograph of Carmen dell’Orefice in a black evening gown and feathered hat, leaning on an ordinary wooden ladder and looking impossibly glamorous. Even when shooting swimsuit models for Charm magazine she did so from the side and other unconventional angles. Frances, meanwhile, practiced a more conventional approach, using classic poses and lighting, as in her glossy photographs of socialite Pat Donovan at home or Fiona Campbell inside the Château de Versailles. But she too broke from tradition at times: for her work at Vogue, she photographed girls running in the rain or inside her apartment curled up on the floor against an armoire.

When World War II broke out, as men went off to fight, greater opportunities arose for women. By 1944, Franny was put in charge of the Vogue junior fashion section. Seventeen Magazine launched to unimagined success and spawned an industry of teen magazines. It was also during the war that New York City became the fashion capital of the world, overtaking Paris with its simple, casual style. Kino quotes Vogue editor Edna Woolman Chase describing Seventh Avenue: “That long nondescript street which strikes through the heart of Manhattan, ‘twixt the docks and the theatres … a world of designers who go to the Yale Bowl, Indian Reservations, Jones Beach, for their inspiration… And you’d take off your bonnets to these manufacturers and designers who made it possible for every woman in America to dress with style.”

But Kino also addresses how the progress women experienced came to an end in the 1950s post-war period, when women were once again pushed back into the kitchen. Yet both the twins stuck to their guns and continued to work for decades afterwards. Interestingly enough, they would also both marry Harper’s Bazaar photographers. Kathryn was soon a mother of three, but instead of abandoning photography, she turned her domestic situation to her advantage, photographing her children and developing a new specialty—unposed kids at play. Meanwhile, Frances remained under contract at Vogue for two more decades. Over their long and successful careers, the two women rose to the top of a male-dominated field. Their photos were reproduced, anthologized, and continued to appear in ads well into the 1970s.

This, one surmises, must have helped pave the way for future generations of women photographers who now command the same respect as their male counterparts. In a conversation with photographer Margaretta Mitchell that ends the book, the twins trade thoughts about the key to their success. “It’s just hard work,” Kathryn suggested. But Frances corrected her, calling it, “sort of magic.” Double Click offers up a bit of magic as well, recounting these women’s lives and the unique era they lived through with equal aplomb.