From the 1940s through the 1970s, Philippe Halsman's sparkling portraits of celebrities, intellectuals, and politicians appeared on the covers and pages of the big picture magazines, including Look, Esquire, the Saturday Evening Post, Paris Match, and especially Life. His work also appeared in advertisements and publicity for clients like Elizabeth Arden cosmetics, NBC, Simon & Schuster, and Ford. Photographers, amateur as well as professional, admired Halsman's stunning images. In 1958, a poll conducted by Popular Photography named Halsman one of the "World's Ten Greatest Photographers" along with Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ernst Haas, Yousuf Karsh, Gjon Mili, and Eugene Smith. Altogether, Halsman's images form a vivid picture of prosperous American society in the middle years of the twentieth century. "Philippe Halsman: A Retrospective" is the first historical survey of his work.
Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) was born in Riga, Latvia. He studied engineering in Dresden before moving to Paris, where he set up his photographic studio in 1932. Halsman's bold, spontaneous style won him many admirers. His portraits of actors and authors appeared on book jackets and in magazines; he worked with fashion (especially hat designs), and filled commissions for private clients. By 1936, Halsman was known as one of the best portrait photographers in France.
Halsman's career came to a dramatic halt in the summer of 1940, when Hitler's troops invaded Paris. His wife, daughter, sister, and brother-in-law, who all held French passports, immigrated to America, but as a Latvian citizen, Philippe Halsman could not obtain a visa. For several long months he waited in Marseilles along with many others who were forced to escape fascist Europe. Finally, through the intervention of Albert Einstein (who had met Halsman's sister in the 1920s), Halsman obtained permission to enter the United States, and he arrived in New York in November 1940 with little more than his camera.
Halsman's big break came when he met Connie Ford, a striking young model who agreed to pose in exchange for prints for her portfolio. When publicists at Elizabeth Arden saw Halsman's photograph of Ford against an American flag, they used the image to launch a national campaign for "Victory Red" lipstick. A year later, in the fall of 1942, Life asked Halsman to shoot a story on new hat design. To Halsman's delight, his portrait of the model smiling through a feathery brim landed on the cover. One hundred more covers followed before the magazine ceased weekly publication in 1972.
When Halsman began working for Life, the magazine was only six years old, and photojournalism was still a new field. Before the existence of Life and its competitors, Americans learned about the world from newspapers, radio, and newsreels. But the new picture magazines published pages filled with bright, dramatic photographs, bringing Americans vivid information that no other media could match. In the spirit of a variety show, or a world's fair, magazines combined stories about international politics, everyday life, news events, celebrities, exotic scenery, and humor to prove that "so much of the world, so judiciously selected, had never been seen before in one place." Today, to understand the significance of those great magazines, we need only look at the many forms of mass media that have come to replace them. Now, we find photographs on television and billboards; in special publications devoted to news, people, fashion, or sports; in newspapers; in museums and galleries; and on the Internet. And, ironically, the more places there are to see photographs, the harder it is to attract viewers. But in 1942, when Philippe Halsman's portrait simply appeared on the cover of Life and immediately reached a large, united audience.
Surrealism
In Paris, Halsman studied the work of other artists and photographers, especially the surrealists, from whom he learned to make images that surprised his viewers. By including homely, and ultimately disturbing, details, he gave his subjects memorable tension. Through subtle lighting, sharp focus, and close cropping, he turned formal fashion shots into serious investigations of character. When Halsman posed NBC comedians against bare white paper, eliminating all defining context, their isolation made them look both frail and funny. Most important of all, from the surrealists' exploration of the erotic unconscious, Halsman learned how to combine glamour, sex, and wholesome energy in one portrait. This unusual ability made him Life's favorite photographer for sensual stars like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot. Halsman's sympathy for surrealism also led to his long, productive friendship with Salvador Dali. Halsman met Dali on assignment in 1941, and over the next three decades they became partners on many projects, including a series of playful tableaux that had all the disturbing irrationality of dreams or a painting by Dali. Their most notable production was "Dali Atomicus", in which the artist, his canvas, furniture, cats, and water all appear suspended in air.
Psychological Portraiture
Over the course of his career, Halsman enjoyed comparing his work to that of a good psychologist who regards his subjects with special insight. With his courtly manners and European accent, Halsman also fit the popular stereotype at a time when Americans regarded psychology with fascinated skepticism. In fact, Halsman was proud of his ability to reveal the character of his sitters. As he explained, "It can't be done by pushing the person into position or arranging his head at a certain angle. It must be accomplished by provoking the victim, amusing him with jokes, lulling him with silence, or asking impertinent questions which his best friend would be afraid to voice."
In the spring of 1952, Halsman put his signature technique to work when Life sent him to Hollywood to photograph Marilyn Monroe. Halsman asked Monroe to stand in a corner, and placed his camera directly in front of her. Later, he recalled that she looked "as if she had been pushed into the corner cornered with no way to escape." Then Halsman, his assistant, and Life's reporter staged a "fiery" competition for Monroe's attention. "Surrounded by three admiring men she smiled, flirted, giggled and wriggled with delight. During the hour I kept her cornered she enjoyed herself royally, and I . . . took between 40 and 50 pictures."
In this widely familiar portrait, Monroe wears a white evening gown and stands with her back against two walls, one dark, the other light, her eyes half closed and her dark, lipsticked mouth partly open. Yet Halsman deftly avoided any explicit representation of the true subject of the picture. Using the euphemistic language of the time, Halsman's assistant admired the photographer's ability to make "suggestive" pictures of beautiful women which still showed "good taste," emphasizing "expression" rather than "physical assets." And then the assistant added, "Halsman is very adept at provoking the expression he wants."
Jumpology
In 1950, NBC asked Halsman to photograph many of its popular comedians. Milton Berle, Ed Wynn, Sid Caesar, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, and many others came to Halsman's studio, where they performed while he captured their antics on film. A single session could generate two or three hundred pictures. When Halsman compared these comic images to more traditional portraits, he found that comedians often jumped and always stayed in character. Desperation (and good humor) finally drove him to ask others to jump for his camera when the Ford Motor Company commissioned him to make an official family photograph in honor of the company's fiftieth anniversary. Halsman spent a long, tiring session with nine edgy adults and eleven restless children. Afterward, Halsman's irrepressible humor inspired him to ask matriarch Mrs. Edsel Ford, "May I take a picture of you jumping?'" The astonished Mrs. Ford replied, "You want me to jump with my high heels?" Next, her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Henry Ford II, requested a turn. The "jump" pictures had surprising charm, and over the next six years, Halsman asked many clients to jump for him. Van Cliburn, Edward R. Murrow, and Herbert Hoover declined Halsman's invitation, but most people realized they had nothing to lose. (Some gained considerably, like the suddenly buoyant and likable Vice President Richard Nixon, who jumped for Halsman in the White House.) Halsman claimed the jumps revealed character that was otherwise hidden. "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears."
Halsman also pursued this project to discover something about himself. "I assure you that often, before approaching the person, my heart would beat, and I would have to fight down all my inhibitions in order to address this request to my subject. At every time when the subject agreed to jump, it was for me like a kind of victory." How did Halsman persuade so many to abandon their composure for his camera? Somehow, he managed to convince each one that the risk was all his own.
Like many who escaped Hitler's Europe, Philippe Halsman rarely discussed the past. He rightly insisted that his most important work took place in America, and in many ways his adopted country became his subject. One typical review noted his patriotic flair, praising Halsman's "unsanctimonious and immensely intense portrayal of American bounce." From a historian's perspective, it seems clear that Halsman invented a glowing image of the nation as he saw it, using light, persuasion, nerve, imagination, psychology, and experience. This place and these faces are his creation.
Halsman's perpetual quest for hidden truth also recalls his personal history as an artist and a refugee. Halsman knew that the effort to establish one's identity had significance far beyond the needs of the celebrity marketplace. "This fascination with the human face has never left me. . . . Every face I see seems to hide and sometimes, fleetingly, to reveal the mystery of another human being. . . . Capturing this revelation became the goal and passion of my life."
Mary Panzer
Curator of Photographs
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Oil on Canvas; 48 x 48 in.
Lu obtained a degree in oil painting from Shandong University of Arts and studied at China Central Academy of Fine Arts. His awards in China and internationally include the Outstanding Award for Graduation Work from China Central Academy, the Japanese Art Association Award, the National Outstanding Award in Oil Painting (China), and the China National Art Exhibition Award of Excellence. His works are in the China National Museum and the Museum of Japan, and have been exhibited in Los Angeles, the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum, and the Fukuoka Art Museum. Lu first visited the US in 1995 and held his first exhibition in 1999. He also exhibited his paintings at the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco. Currently, he lives in Danville, California with his wife and son.
Lu describes his art with the word “Symmetrism” to fully express all his feelings to the world. The very essence of his Symmetrism art is balance and equilibrium. A steady horizontal line and a vertical straight line connecting heaven and earth denote stability, universality, and mental spirituality. All his creative spirit comes from the source of a central line of symmetry, which inspires his creativity to expand and bear everything he is in pursuit of.
cis.stanford.edu/~marigros/show82.html#artist3
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Carl Heinrich Bloch (May 23, 1834 - February 22, 1890) was a Danish painter.He was born in Copenhagen and studied with Wilhelm Marstrand at the Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) there.His early work featured rural scenes from everyday life. From 1859 to 1866, Bloch lived in Italy, and this period was important for the development of his historical style.
His first great success was the exhibition of his "Prometheus Unbound" in Copenhagen in 1865. After the death of Marstrand, he finished the decoration of the ceremonial hall at the University of Copenhagen.
He was then commissioned to produce 23 paintings for the Chapel at Frederiksborg Palace. These were all scenes from the life of Christ which have become very popular as illustrations. The originals, painted between 1865 and 1879, are still at Frederiksborg Palace.
Bloch died in Copenhagen at the age of 63.
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Julie Blackmon (born 1966 in Springfield, Missouri) is a photographer who lives and works in Missouri. Blackmon's photographs are inspired by her experience of growing up in a large family, her current role as both mother and photographer, and the timelessness of family dynamics.[1] As the oldest of nine children and mother to three, Blackmon uses her own family members and household to "move beyond the documentary to explore the fantastic elements of our everyday lives.
Blackmon studied art at Missouri State University where she became interested in photography and the work of photographers such as Sally Mann and Keith Carter. Drawing extensively on her personal experiences and relationships, Blackmon adds an element of humor and fantasy to create works that touch on both the everyday and the fictitious.[2]
Mind Games, Blackmon’s first major body of work, explores childhood play through a series of black and white images that deal with the external objects and internal imagination through which play is derived. In 2004, the series won her honorable mention in Project Competition hosted by the Santa Fe Center for Photography and a merit award from the Society of Contemporary Photography in Kansas City, MO.[3]
Following Mind Games, Blackmon switched to color film and began using digital technologies to intensify the hue of her photographs, as well as collage elements from multiple shots into one image.[4][5] The resulting photographs of family life appear at once disorderly and playful, and at times impossible. Blackmon says that the images in her series Domestic Vacations recall the tableaux of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painters, notably the chaotic familial scenes of Jan Steen.[1] Tailored environments and carefully placed props are often a feature of her work.
Blackmon is represented by the Robert Mann gallery in New York, among others. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and can be found in the permanent collections of the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; and the Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA. Blackmon’s photographs have also appeared in the pages of Time, The New Yorker, and Oxford American.
In 2008, a monograph of Blackmon's work was published under the title Domestic Vacations.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Blackmon
www.julieblackmon.com/
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