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Today we will be dealing with the life of another great universal photographer, in this case we will be talking about a photographer who was in charge of portraying the most outstanding characters of his time, one of his best friends the artist Salvador Dalí was in charge of promoting him among the artistic and political elite. I'm talking about Philippe Halsman. Come with me to learn more about the life and work of this excellent writer of light.
This genius of the lens, born to be a photographer and get to portray some of the most emblematic characters of his time, leaving immortalized by time all these people who were involved in artistic, scientific and political development. In addition, he was creator of techniques that are still valid in photography, such as soft focus something out of series for his time.
Perhaps the portraits that most made him known were those he made of his own friend Salvador Dalí with his vertical moustaches, photographers follow some of the most famous actors in Hollywood or his famous portrait of the filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock that would be used as advertising for the film birds in 1963.
Philippe Halsman was born in 1906 in the city of Riga of a Jewish family, his father was a distinguished dentist and his mother was a teacher and director of the school, once he finishes his secondary studies he dedicates himself to study electrical engineering in Dresden, Germany. Although he decides to study engineering he always felt attracted by art, and especially by the Russian and German culture, because of his religious position he is accused of parricide when he was only 22 years old he was tried and had to pay 4 years of sentence.
When he got out of prison and with tuberculosis that he contracted while he was in prison, he moved to France specifically to the city of Paris, where he immediately began to work with the fashion magazine Vogue, in a few years he would become one of the most sought after portrait artists of fashion photography, thanks to his Soft focus technique allowed to obtain sharper photographs. But not everything would be happiness after the Second World War and with the Nazi occupation in France he fled to the United States, thanks nothing more and nothing less with the help of one of his best friends Albert Einstein.
But good things were about to happen in the American country, where he is almost immediately hired by Elizabeth Arden, a cosmetics businesswoman who uses one of his photographs to advertise Victory Red lipstick. His influence in the media was such that LIFE magazine makes a cover for him and then he is hired to do work with this prestigious magazine. At that time he became friends with Salvador Dalí, to whom he made one of the artist's most emblematic photographs. Salvador Dalí is suspended in the air with objects as if he were levitating while cats are beaten with a strong current of water.
In 1947 he made the famous portrait of Albert Einstein where in the middle of the session he asked the scientist his opinion about the atomic bomb and he answered with a gesture where it can be seen that he is sticking out his tongue. Time magazine 20 years later would use the same graph to name him as the most influential character of the twentieth century.
The work of this artist beyond his influence was highlighted by the approach and naturalness of his portraits, managed to capture characters considered as gods by the star system as ordinary people who had a great sense of humor to be portrayed.
Thank you for reading 😀
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