Wayne Albee

{{short description|American photographer (1882-1937)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Wayne Clinton Albee

| birth_date = {{birth year|1882}}

| birth_place = St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.

| death_date = {{death year and age|1937|1882}}

| death_place = San Diego, California

}}

File:Ella McBride by Wayne Albee ca 1921.jpg

File:In a dancer's studio (1922).jpg

Wayne Clinton Albee (1882–1937) was an American pictorialist photographer, best known for his portraits of dancers such as ballerina Anna Pavlova, Adoplh Bolm of the Ballets Russes, and early modern dance pioneers Doris Humphrey, Ted Shawn, and Ruth St. Denis.{{cite web|url=http://seattlecameraclub.com/wayne_albee.html|title=Wayne Albee|author=Seattle Camera Club|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224223103/http://seattlecameraclub.com/wayne_albee.html|archive-date=2017-02-24|url-status=dead|accessdate=March 13, 2019}}

Albee got his start at age sixteen, working in a photographic supply shop owned by Byron Harmon.{{cite web|url=https://emuseum.ringling.org/emuseum/people/31/wayne-albee|last=Peterson|first=Christian A.|title=Wayne Albee|accessdate=March 13, 2019}}{{cite book|title=Pictorial Photography at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts|last=Peterson|first=Christian A.}} He went on to work for McBride Studios with business partner Ella E. McBride. She soon become a well-known photographer in her own right, and credited Albee's influence with inspiring her to learn to take her own photographs. He also was an early mentor to the Japanese American photographers Frank Kunishige and Soichi Sunami, who assisted him at McBride Studios.{{cite web|url=http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv14486|title=Wayne Albee photographs, circa 1920|accessdate=March 13, 2019}}

He was an informal advisor to the Seattle Camera Club, and he also served for many years as the chief judge at the Frederick & Nelson art salons.{{cite web|title=Preserving a Legacy of Light and Shadow: Iwao Matsushita, Kyo Koike, and the Seattle Camera Club |last = Bromberg|first=Nicolette|url=http://content.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/shadows/index.html}}