Closet Yields Treasure Trove Of Photos

Werner Liepolt is a longtime Westporter. His family has done extensive research into an intriguing family story. Werner writes:

William Bell was a noted fashion photographer. His career began in the 1950s. It extended through the 1970s, when he began designing furniture, silk screening fabric and putting color onto everything he touched.

His daughter Bobbi Liepolt and I — both retired Westport teachers — inherited masses of photographs, slides and transparencies when Bill passed away. Organizing and archiving seemed desirable, but low on the list of priorities as our kids moved away and we began our retirement.

However, one thin box shifted our priorities. Bobbi and our son James found it in a closet. He noted that Bill had scrawled with a thick marker “IMPORTANT,” and opened it.

The photos.

In it we found a tranche of about 40 8×10 color transparencies. Bill had mentioned some of the subjects we found, but no one in our family had seen them.

The subjects range from super models (Suzy Parker, Dolores Hawkins, Sunny Harnett, Evelyn Tripp) to celebrities (Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, David Niven.)

Marilyn Monroe, circa 1952 (Photo/William Bell, copyright Roberta Bell Liepolt 2025)

Bill’s extensive list of editorial and covers for Vogue and other Condé Nast publications have been featured in online archives and library publications.

Dodie Kazanjian chose 2 of his Vogue covers for her Met Gallery coffee table book, “Vogue: The Covers.”

Vogue cover, December 1, 1958 (Copyright Conde Nast photo by William Bell)

He was entrusted with several successful national advertising campaigns. Bill chose Westport for photographs in the witty, award-winning Dunbar furniture series.

Dunbar Furniture shoot at Kathleen Laycock School (now Greens Farms Academy) …

… and at Nyala Farm. (Photos/William Bell)

However, what Bobbi uncovered was work that had neither been printed nor published. Digitizing a few of the dozen reels of 16mm film that she always thought were shot during family reunions revealed Bill’s record of photo shoots and encounters with prominent figures from the New York fashion world — including her introduction to the teen aged Suzy Parker.

Still from 16mm film: Bobbie Bell, age 7, with Suzy Parker (Copyright WBELLC)

From the moment we began to review and digitize not only the film and  large format transparencies (eventually about 150), but also the medium format and 35mm slides numbering close to a thousand, Bobbi realized that her father’s legacy deserved to be freed from the boxes where it had lain hidden.

Though much archival work remains, Bobbi, I and Bill’s grandchildren have formed the William Bell Estate LLC. We created a website where a portion of the archive can now be seen, along with Bill’s biography, and material placing his work in the world of mid-century New York fashion photography.

For Bobbi, the project has become more than an effort to preserve her father’s photographs. It is a way of bringing back into view the warmth, wit, technical skill and sense of beauty that he brought to his work — and of sharing a part of photographic history that in some cases has not been seen for more than 70 years.

The archive is still revealing itself. Boxes remain to be opened; films to be digitized, viewed and stored; photos to be identified, and stories to be connected.

Bobbi and I hope that people who knew Bill, and remember the fashion world he photographed, recognize a face or place, or simply enjoy discovering the work of a gifted photographer, will visit the William Bell Studio website, look around, and perhaps help add another piece to the story.

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