Philippe Halsman

"Phillipe Halsman’s unique disarming ability expose the personality of his subjects without pretense, quickly made him one the most sought after photographers by our nation’s cultural elite.Some of his clientele portfolio included, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Mr. Halsman also began a thirty-year collaboration with surreal artist Salvador Dali in 1941. Their partnership created many surreal photographic images, the most famous of which, “Dali Atomicus,” portrayed Dali along with, cats, furniture and water all suspended in midair." [more...]

"Dali Atomicus" by Philippe Halsman - 1948

"And something to note - you could do this in photoshop now easily but Halsman did not - this was shot live. It took 26 tries to get it over five hours - Halsman counted to four, Dali leapt, 3 assistants threw the cats, one threw the water from a bucket and Halsman's wife held the chair. Its all done in the camera." [more...]