James Abbe was born in 1883 in Alfred, Maine. His career as international photographer was first boosted by the Washington Post -commissioned him to travel and take photographs of a 16-day voyage with the American battleship fleet to England - France in 1910. He traveled throughout Europe as a young photojournalist in the late 1920s - 1930s recording the unstable power struggles of the early 20th century. First made a name for himself photographing theatre stars of the New York stage and subsequently movie stars in New York, Hollywood, Paris, and London throughout the 1920s and 1930s. His unusual technique of working outside the studio set him apart from other photographers of the period. To earn a living," Abbe sold his photographs to magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair, which brought his subjects greater fame. He called his photography 'a ticket' to the world, -"Abbe's most celebrated portraits include his rare double portraits of silent film stars Rudolph Valentino and his wife Natasha Rambova, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, as well as dancers including the Dolly Sisters and Anna Pavlova, all taken in the 1920s. Reflecting the changing, Abbe became one of the first photojournalist to submit his work in photo-essays to major publications, including The London Magazine, Vu and the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. illuminating fashions in magazines content.