The National Portrait Gallery recently opened a pair of shows, Zaida Ben-Yusuf: New York Portrait Photographer and Edward Steichen: Portraits, which combine to weave a single portrait of American cultural life in the early decades of the twentieth century. Though Steichen is the much better known photographer, Ben-Yusuf’s work is equally compelling, and together the two exhibitions portray a range of politicians, actors, writers, musicians and other important figures, giving us a glimpse back into time.

Edward Steichen: Portraits highlights the rich holdings of the Gallery, since all of the pictures are part of the permanent collection. The photographs are divided into two categories: the early soft-focus portraits he took when he was just coming to the medium (he was a painter before he got into photography) and those he took for Vanity Fair. Steichen was the chief photographer for the magazine 1923 to 1936, and during this time he started to play more with shadow and light, using artificial lighting. His pictures help fuel America’s fascination with celebrity, and there are images of many important cultural figures, including Fred Astaire, Willa Cather, Charlie Chaplin (pictured), Joan Crawford, Paul Robeson and Frank Lloyd Wright.