Ned Scott (1907-1964) was an American still photographer known for his work on the Mexican film “Redes” and for decades of Hollywood production stills and portraiture. He was born Edward Norman Scott Jr. His life is typically divided into 3 phases: a difficult early life, an inspired period as a photographer, and a later decline as an artist.
Note: There is also a Ned Scott who co-founded the cryptocurrency platform Steemit in 2016. This article covers the photographer, the individual most commonly referenced under this name in biographical archives.
When and Where Was Ned Scott Born?
Ned Scott was born Edward Norman Scott Jr. on 16 April 1907 in Paris, France, to American expatriate parents. He was the middle child of 3 children and the only male. His birth was reportedly a happy occasion for his family.
What Was Ned Scott’s Early Life Like?
Ned Scott’s early life was marked by instability and boarding school internments. His happy early childhood ended abruptly with the outbreak of World War One in 1914. To protect their children, his parents sent Ned and his 2 sisters to Swiss boarding schools.
This began a long series of boarding school placements, none of which were particularly successful. Scott struggled with the discipline and regimentation of these environments. He rebelled regularly and developed negative attitudes that stayed with him for the rest of his life. His parents did not fully grasp the torment these years caused him. They were instead troubled by consistent reports from school authorities about his disruptive behaviour.
His first phase of life closed in 1929, when he wrote a letter to his mother asking for her forgiveness for his disobedient conduct as a young man.
How Did Ned Scott Begin His Photography Career?
Ned Scott began his photography career by joining the Camera Club of New York in 1930-31. This marked the start of his most productive and celebrated period as an artist. Through the club, he formed relationships with established photographers of the era.
There are 3 significant figures Scott connected with through the Camera Club:
- Henwar Rodakiewicz: A filmmaker who became a close associate
- Paul Strand: A prominent modernist photographer who became a major influence and later collaborator
- Alfred Stieglitz: A leading American photographer whose broader influence shaped the Camera Club’s artistic standards
At Camera Club meetings, members critiqued and encouraged each other’s prints, which Scott found to be a valuable learning process. One of his early photographic subjects was La Iglesia de San Francisco in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, one of the oldest churches in the United States and a popular subject among Camera Club photographers of the time.
What Was Ned Scott’s Role in the Film “Redes”?
Ned Scott worked as the still photographer on the Mexican propaganda film “Redes,” produced in Alvarado, Mexico, in the latter half of 1934. He was invited onto the project by Paul Strand, who was producing the film. Scott took the assignment without pay.
He used a 5×7 Graflex camera throughout production, modified at Paul Strand’s suggestion to produce a slightly smaller exposure than standard. Fred Zinnemann, who worked on “Redes” in his own directorial debut, later described Scott’s stills from the production as “classics” in his autobiography.
The Alvarado assignment produced several distinct bodies of work beyond the film stills themselves, including studies of local religious art, the fishing community’s daily life, rooftop architecture, and the surrounding river and shoreline landscapes.
What Did Ned Scott Do in Hollywood?
Ned Scott worked as a still photographer in the Hollywood film industry from 1935 to 1948. Following the completion of “Redes,” he moved to Hollywood with other members of the production to pursue work in the American film industry, despite having no formal training in cinema.
During his Hollywood years, Scott photographed a range of subjects for the studios, including:
- Film production stills
- Portrait photography of contract actors and actresses
- Publicity stills used for promotional distribution
Notable actors and actresses he photographed during this period include Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, and Paulette Goddard, among many other studio-era stars. Critics regard his photographic work from this era as among the strongest still photography produced in Hollywood at the time.
He also continued personal and commercial photographic work outside of studio assignments, including still-life studies and experiments with x-ray tubes while based in New York earlier in his career, though little of this early commercial work survives except what Scott preserved for his own personal collection.
What Happened in the Later Years of Ned Scott’s Life?
The final phase of Ned Scott’s life, from around age 41 until his death, is described in biographical accounts as a period of slow decline as an artist. Documentation of this later period is less extensive than his earlier, more productive years.
Ned Scott died in 1964, closing a career that spanned still photography, portraiture, and one significant contribution to early sound-era Mexican cinema.
What Is Ned Scott’s Legacy?
Ned Scott’s legacy rests primarily on his still photography from “Redes” and his Hollywood-era portrait and production work. Because he rarely printed his personal work for commercial sale, few of his vintage prints circulate on the market today. Most material available through auction and archival sources comes from his Hollywood years, largely in the form of publicity stills produced as 8×10 glossy prints.
His more significant personal prints, particularly from the Alvarado period in Mexico, have appeared at auction only occasionally over recent decades and are considered more artistically significant than his commercial studio work. His photographs and personal history are preserved and maintained through the Ned Scott Archive, a dedicated collection documenting his career, correspondence, and surviving body of work.