Philippe Halsman

 



               Philippe Halsman was born May 2, 1906. His father was a dentist and his mother was a teacher. When Halsman was born his mother gave up her career as a teacher. Halsman had a younger sister. His summer vacations in Europe allowed him to visit most of the important museums, where he found he most liked the portraits. He started taking pictures when he was fifteen and taught himself with the help of a book. The first person he photographed was his sister, and he developed the plate by himself in his bathroom. He became the photographer for his family and friends. He found he most liked taking pictures of their faces, which he carried through the rest of his career. Halsman decided to study mechanics in Germany but later continued his studies in Paris. Being in Paris made him want to experiment with photography because it was a big trend there. When he told his mother he was going to drop his studies and become a photographer she was not happy. He started by experimenting a lot with different lighting. He designed his own camera so he could take pictures quicker and see the person through the camera lens. He became one of the best portrait photographers in France but because of WW2, he had to move to America where no one had heard of him. So he started from scratch. He did portraits for Connie Ford who then added his portraits to her portfolio and when Elizabeth Arden, a beauty product tycoon, saw them she chose his portrait for her ad. This opened up a lot of doors for him and eventually, LIFE magazine was having him do a lot of cover shoots.

               Above are some of his pictures. I chose these pictures to show because I think they say a lot about Halsman as a photographer. He takes an average photo shoot and makes it exceptional. It also shows how dedicated he is because these pictures are all by chance. He as the subjects moving around and the likely hood that they all end up good is very slim so he has to take a lot of shots. They also show that he is not afraid to take risks. Now personally I don’t really like portrait photos because I think they are boring and bland but I really like what he does. The motion adds depth to the image, and it shows more of who the subject is. I had a hard time just picking four of his images, I wanted to show them all.

(This is the website where I found these images and Halsman Autobiography)

Halsman, P. (n.d.). Autobiography. Retrieved February 05, 2021, from http://philippehalsman.com/halsman/autobiography/



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