Intro

Clarence Sinclair Bull (1896-1979) was born in Michigan but spent most of his life in Hollywood. He was head of the MGM stills department for over forty years and he took over 4,000 photographs of Greta Garbo from 1929 until the end of her career in 1941. He was Garbo’s favourite photographer (she had clashed with George Hurrell and did not care for his manic personality) and as her power at the studio grew, she eventually requested that only Bull photograph her.

He was hired by movie mogul Sam Goldwyn in 1920 to photograph publicity stills of the studio’s stars. Four years later, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was founded, Bull was appointed as the head of their stills department where he remained throughout his career. During that time he took portraits of the most celebrated Hollywood film stars, however, he is particularly known for his photographs for Garbo who was almost exclusively photographed by Bull from 1926 to 1941.
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