Originally a painter, George Hurrell started photographing other painters' works in order to earn a living in the artist's colony of Laguna Beach, California. In 1927 he opened a photographic studio in Los Angeles. Silent film star Ramon Novarro became one of his first clients, and within two years Hurrell became the premier Hollywood glamour photographer. He worked for Metro-Goldywn-Mayer (MGM) studios for three years beginning in 1930, where he made the publicity stills for all of the studio's stars. By 1936, one national magazine stated that "a Hurrell portrait is to a normal publicity still what a Rolls Royce is to a pair of roller skates." Hurrell also worked during the 1930s as a freelance photographer for several Hollywood studios and as a fashion photographer in New York. 

 

His work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.