The twentieth century in "Jump"

Philip Halsman (1906, Riga-1979, New York) is considered the founder of surrealism in photography. Even a person who is not particularly interested in this type of art has probably seen his famous frame “Dali atomicus” (for which Salvador Dali had to jump 28 times). The source of inspiration for this composition with a flying artist, three cats and a bucket of spilled water was the opening of the planetary model of the atom. Halsman and gave friends and collaborated for many years - we can recall another classic work: they gave in the cylinder and skull composed of naked female bodies.

Halsman, a Riga Jew by birth, arrived in Paris in the early 1930s and ten years later became one of the most famous Parisian photo portraiters, collaborated with Vogue, VU and Voilà magazines. His pictures capture the color of thought and art concentrated in Paris before the war: Andre Malro, Paul Valeri, Mark Shagal, Andre Jew, Le Corbusier ...

After the Nazi occupation of Paris, Halsman was forced to emigrate to the United States. Albert Einstein helped him to get an American visa - after seven years, the photographer will probably make the most famous series of his portraits, one of which will later decorate the US postage stamp. Since 1942 and the next 30 years, the photographer collaborated with the famous Life magazine, making reports about the most important events in the life of America (on the cover of Life, 101 photography was printed during this time: this record has not yet been beaten and Halsman considered it his greatest achievement), and also with such publications as look, Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, Paris Match ... In 1945, Halsman became the first president of the American Society of Journalic photographers.

In his long American period, Halsman has now created the portraits of famous artists, artists, scientists, and his time, among them - Albert Einstein, Fernandel, Bridget Bardin, Anna Matisse, Anna Managini, Sophie Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill and John Kennedy. Therefore, in the history of photography, Halsman, who was born in the Russian Empire and formed professionally in France, entered precisely as an American photographer: a story usual for a great “melting boiler”.

The idea of Halsman was that even a celebrity, accustomed to pose, ceases to control himself in the jump

"Jump" is the most famous series of works of the photographer. For this cycle, the master asked his heroes to jump after shooting. The idea of the Halsman was that even a celebrity, accustomed to pose, stops controlling itself in the jump, the mask flies, and the camera manages to catch the real nature of a person.

Richard Nixon, Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Mark Shagal, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Audrey Hepburn, Sophie Loren, Mohammed Ali and many others jumped for Halsman. In 1959, the series was published by a separate book.

At the exhibition, held as part of the X Moscow International Biennale “Fashion and Style in Photography”, 50 pictures from the famous cycle will be shown in Russia for the first time.