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Cheney Johnston had a very lucrative career with the
Follies until the stock market crash of 1929. The Follies was hit hard.
Ziegfeld lost all of his money and later died in 1932 as a result of the
strain. Johnston continued to work commercially in NYC. However, with the
loss of the Follies account it seemed as though Johnston had lost his identity.
In 1939 Cheney and Doris decided to leave NYC and bought a 15 acre rural property in Oxford, Connecticut. The reasons for the move are unclear but they may include the fact that his photographic style had fallen out of fashion and WWII was approaching bringing with it uncertainty and the rising cost of living in NYC. He and Doris converted the barn on their property into studio space for her painting and his photography. There is little record of the photographs that Cheney took from his years in Connecticut. In 1937, just prior to moving to Connecticut, he partnered with Swann Publications of NYC and published a spiral bound art book entitled Enchanting Beauty. Although praised by critics, fellow artists and friends, the book's success appears limited. After the war Cheney attempted to begin again in 1949 by opening a photography studio in New Haven, CT and later by opening another studio in Seymour, a small town close to Oxford, but both studios were short lived. He joined the Hartford County Camera Club as well as the Connecticut branch of the PPANE, the New England regional group connected to the PPA, the Professional Photographers of America. He gave a few lectures and demonstrations at the yearly conventions of these organizations and also taught photography to small groups at his studio in Connecticut. continue... |
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