As one of America’s most successful commercial artists, Norman Rockwell could afford to employ skilled photographers to operate the camera and make work prints for him. If Rockwell saw himself as a film director in relationship to his actors/models, his relationship with his photographers was one of director to cinematographer. Rockwell determined where to position the camera, how to frame the scene and when to shoot, but preferred not to look through the viewfinder and rarely tripped the shutter.

Rockwell preferred to train his cameramen himself to suit his particular requirements as an illustrator. He wanted straightforward photographs, and was careful not to allow the aesthetic effects of fine art or studio photography to skew his own vision. Rockwell worked with many photographers in the more than forty years he used the camera, but there are three responsible for the majority of his photographs: Gene Pelham, Bill Scovill and Louie Lamone.

The artwork for these photographs can be seen in the previous two photos.