PHILIPPE HALSMAN (1906-1979)
John F. Kennedy
Print in Colors
8 3/4" x 11 1/2"
Philippe Halsman was a Latvian-born American photographer known for his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and collaborations with Salvador Dalí. In producing his hallmark photobook Jump (1959), Halsman asked each of his subjects to jump in the air while he photographed them to capture an unguarded moment. â€Å“Every face I see seems to hide—and sometimes fleetingly to reveal—the mystery of another human being,â€Â he once said. â€Å“Capturing this revelation became the goal and passion of my life.â€Â Born on May 2, 1906 in Riga, Russian Empire (present-day Latvia) to Jewish parents, Halsman initially studied electrical engineering in Dresden before moving to Paris, where he set up his first photography studio. While in France, Halsman made portraits of Le Corbusier and Marc Chagall, among others. His sharply contrasting images broke from the tradition style of softly focused portraiture. With the help of his friend Albert Einstein, the artist was able to escape Europe after the Nazi invasion of France and immigrate to New York. Settled in New York, Halsman began collaborations with other émigré artists, including Dalí, with whom he created two of his most famous images, Dalí Atomicus (1948) and Voluptas Mors (1951). Over the decades that followed, the artistâ€â„¢s photographs appeared in a number of publications including Vogue and LIFE. He died on June 25, 1979 in New York, NY. Today, Halsmanâ€â„¢s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others.

Mounted