John Rawlings was a Condé Nast Publications fashion photographer from the 1930s through the 1960s. He became one of the most prolific and important fashion photographers of the twentieth century, and with his passing in 1970, he left a vast body of work, with more than 200 Vogue and Glamour magazine covers to his credit.

At a time when opulence and theatrical lighting were commonplace in fashion photography, John Rawlings led the change in direction of Vogue fashion photography. He began showing fashion in a direct, informational way that combined beauty with clarity. John Rawlings became the first photographer to systematically associate fashion with Hollywood celebrities.

Nast and Vogue‘s editor-in-chief, Edna Woolman Chase, decided that magazine photography needed a change in direction and decided that a talented but unknown twenty-four-year-old man from Ohio was going to be the one to do it.

In two memos sent by Chase, one to her staff in 1937 and another to the photographers in 1938,