About the Latvian-born Magnum photographer Philippe HALSMAN (1906 -1979).

Philippe HALSMAN was a portrait and fashion photographer who worked for Life magazine for decades. His works were published there over a hundred times as covers. Philipp Halsmann or Filips Halsmans was born in Latvia. After graduating from high school in Riga, Philippe took up studies in electrical engineering in Dresden and worked part-time as a freelance photographer for the Ullstein publishing house. In 1931 he opened a photo studio in Paris, from then on Philippe called himself HALSMAN. He soon became known for his portraits and fashion photos. After the occupation of France by Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1940, where he immediately began working as a press and fashion photographer, and as early as 1941 was given a permanent position with Life magazine, the ultimate in photojournalism at the time. In the same year he began his collaboration with Salvador Dalí, which lasted over thirty years. In 1945 he was elected the first president of the 'American Society of Magazine Photographers', where he led the fight for the creative and professional rights of photographers. His work soon gained international recognition, and in 1951 he was invited by the founders of Magnum Photos to join the organization as a 'contributing member'.The exceptional quality of his images is also reflected in the fact that a total of 103 of his photographs served as covers for the weekly Life.
Starting in 1959, he realized his 'Jump Pictures': the subjects - politicians and public figures - were supposed to jump off the ground for the portrait, at the moment of the jump they were captured - in the picture they seem to float. These idiosyncratic full-body portraits of U.S. President Nixon, the artist Salvador Dalí, the film comedian Fernandel or the Duke and Duchess of Windsor became particularly famous. In 1960, at the time of the Cold War, he photographed portraits of the Soviet elite for Life during an extended stay in Russia. In 1963 he was appointed a member of the 'Famous Photographers School'. His works were exhibited at documenta 6 in Kassel.

Photo books by and about the work of Philippe HALSMAN

  • 'Salvador Dalí, Philippe Halsman: Dali's Mustache' (1954, 1996)
    'Philippe Halsman's Jump Book' (1959, 1986, 2017).
    'Retrospective' (1998)
    'Unknown Halsman' (2008)
    'Salvador Dali & Philippe Halsman. The Work Together' (2015)
    'Philippe Halsman: A Photographer’s Life' (2022, by Henry Leutwyler)

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This out-of-print photographic volume 'Unknown Halsman' reveals the playful, whimsical side of French Magnum photographer Philippe HALSMAN. It captures not only his character, but also the essence of the time. The monograph is colorful & vividly designed.
from 45,00 € Weight 1.6 kg
The out-of-print photographic volume 'Philippe Halsman. Retrospective' contains the best of his brilliant work. Here are his famous (Einstein, Dalí, Monroe) portraits, his testimonies to his fascination with surrealism, and his 'Jumpology' photos.
from 55,00 € Weight 1.9 kg
Salvador Dalí is shown roped off a helicopter by his famous mustache, or in a rain of popcorn and baguettes. French Magnum photographer Philippe HALSMAN and the painter created a body of work over three decades that was in many ways ahead of its time.
19,80 € *
'Photographers A-Z' brings together photographers who have made a significant contribution to photographic culture, as well as the most important photographic volumes of the past century. The entries are illustrated with facsimiles from books & magazines.
from 16,00 €
For his biographical book 'Phlippe Halsman. A Photographer's Life', Henry Leutwyler explores the meaning inherent in inanimate objects. To do this, he photographed objects from Halsman's possessions - cameras, eyeglasses, as well as a series of letters.
75,00 € *

Beyond photography

"On September 10, 1928, during a stay in Tyrol, Philipp Halsmann undertook a mountain hike with his father on the Schwarzenstein in the Zillertal Alps. In the process, the latter lost his life under circumstances that have not been clarified to this day. There were no witnesses and the circumstantial evidence pointed to a violent death. Philippe was immediately arrested, although he had no obvious motives. The murder trial in Innsbruck caused a sensation throughout Europe. Despite his protestations of innocence, Philippe was sentenced by an Innsbruck jury to ten years in prison. Various anti-Semitic statements were made in the course of the trial. On appeal, he was finally sentenced to four years in prison. Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Jakob Wassermann, Erich Fromm and Sigmund Freud lobbied for his acquittal or later for his pardon. Especially Heinrich Eduard Jacob, at that time chief of the Central European bureau of the Berliner Tageblatt in Vienna - along with Emil Kläger (Neue Freie Presse, Vienna) as well as Rudolf Olden the leading reporter - stood up for him journalistically by publishing several brilliantly researched articles critical of justice. At that time, a fierce battle broke out between psychiatry and the relatively young field of psychology. Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex was debated and excluded expressis verbis by Freud and Fromm in newspaper articles for this case. Among the many petitions for clemency, the initiative of jurors in the second trial is noteworthy. Ten of twelve jurors signed the petition, in which they explicitly insisted on the truth verdict, but argued that Halsman's family had been severely tested and that the verdict was based only on circumstantial evidence. Philipp Halsmann was pardoned by Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas on September 30, 1930, and at the same time expelled from the country." (Source: wikipedia, accessed 28.01.2023)