Philippe Halsman

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Philippe Halsman: Dalí Atomicus , circa 1948

Philippe Halsman (born May 2, 1906 in Riga , Livonia Governorate as Philipp Halsmann or Filips Halsmans , †  June 25, 1979 in New York ) was a portrait and fashion photographer . He worked for Life magazine for decades . His works have been published over a hundred times on the cover.

Life

Philipp Halsmann, who called himself Philippe Halsman since he emigrated to Paris in 1931 , was born in Latvia (then Livonia Governorate ) as the son of the dentist Morduch Max Halsmann and the teacher Ita Halsmann, nee. Grintuch born. After graduating from high school in Riga, Philippe began studying electrical engineering in Dresden and also worked as a freelance photographer for Ullstein Verlag .

On September 10, 1928, during a stay in Tyrol , he went on a mountain hike with his father on the Schwarzenstein in the Zillertal Alps . He died under circumstances that have not yet been clarified. There were no witnesses and the evidence suggested a violent death. Philippe was arrested immediately, although there were no obvious motives for him. The murder trial in Innsbruck caused a sensation all over Europe. Despite his pledges of innocence, Philippe was sentenced to ten years in prison by an Innsbruck jury. Various anti-Semitic statements were made in the context of the process. On an appeal, he was finally sentenced to four years in prison. Albert Einstein , Thomas Mann , Jakob Wassermann , Erich Fromm and Sigmund Freud campaigned for an acquittal or, later, for a pardon for Halsman. Heinrich Eduard Jacob in particular , at that time head of the Central European office of the Berliner Tageblatt in Vienna - alongside Emil Kläger ( Neue Freie Presse , Vienna) and Rudolf Olden, lead reporter - supported Halsman as a journalist by publishing several brilliantly researched articles critical of the judiciary. At that time a fierce battle broke out between psychiatry and the relatively young psychology. Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex was discussed and expressis verbis excluded for this case by Freud and Fromm in newspaper articles . Among the many requests for clemency, the initiative of jurors in the second trial is noteworthy. Ten out of twelve jurors signed the petition, in which they explicitly insist on the verdict, but stated that Halsman's family had been severely examined and that the verdict was based only on circumstantial evidence. Halsman was pardoned on September 30, 1930 by the Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas and at the same time expelled from the country.

After a short rest in South Tyrol, he moved to his sister in Paris. He finally turned his youth hobby, photography, into his profession, opened a photo studio in Paris in 1931 and called himself Philippe Halsman from then on . He soon became known for his portraits and fashion photos . He also studied at the Sorbonne . After the occupation of France by Germany in 1940, he was denied the intended emigration to the USA . It was only through the intercession of Albert Einstein that he received a visa for the New World.

In the USA, Halsman immediately worked as a press and fashion photographer, and apparently so successfully that the following year he got a permanent position at Life magazine , the ultimate in photojournalism at the time . In 1945, Halsman was named President of the American Society of Magazine Photographers . Halsman's portrait of Albert Einstein from 1947 is unsurpassed and is still widely known today . The exceptional quality of his pictures is also demonstrated by the fact that for over 20 years, Halsman produced such good pictures that a total of 103 of his photos were used as covers for the weekly Life served more than any other photographer.

His "Jump Pictures" of politicians and public figures, which he realized in 1959, were considered a specialty: the portrayed were supposed to jump off the ground for the portrait, at the moment of the jump they were captured - they appear to float in the picture. These idiosyncratic full-body portraits of US President Nixon , the artist Salvador Dalí , the film comedian Fernandel and the Dukes of Windsor became particularly well known . These pictures were published as a "Jump Book" in the same year.

In 1960, during the Cold War , he photographed portraits of the Soviet elite for Life during an extended stay in Russia . In 1963, Halsman was appointed a member of the Famous Photographers School . His works were exhibited at documenta 6 in Kassel.

In 1936, after two years of professional collaboration, he married the photographer Yvonne Moser. He commented on this marriage: "I often advise young photographers to marry their competitors, that is the best way to neutralize them." The photographer remained lifelong friendly with Salvador Dalí and worked with the artist for over 30 years, whereby the surrealistic element in Philippe Halsman's photographs is unmistakable.

Aftermath

The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC devoted a retrospective to Halsman from November 6, 1998 to February 7, 1999.

Between May and July 2006, parts of the film “ Jump! ” Were shown in Kremsmünster and Linz , among others . “Filmed about the life of Philippe Halsman (premiere: spring 2008). This was embodied in the main role of Ben Silverstone . Also starring were found Heinz Hoenig and Patrick Swayze . Joshua Sinclair was responsible for the direction and script .

Works

  • Salvador Dalí, Philippe Halsman: Dali's Mustache . 1954. New edition Flammarion, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-08-012433-1 .
  • Philippe Halsman's Jump Book. New York: Verlag Simon and Schuster, 1959. New paperback edition: New York: Verlag Harry N. Abrams, 1986, ISBN 0-8109-2338-6 . German edition: Midas Verlag, Zurich, June 2017, ISBN 978-3-03876-115-0 (facsimile of the original edition from 1959.)
  • Unknown Halsman. ed. by Oliver Halsman Rosenberg. London: Distributed Art Pub, 2008. ISBN 978-1-933045-87-0 .

literature

  • Philipp Halsmann / Karl Blanck (eds.): Letters from prison to a friend. J. Engelhorns Nachf. Stuttgart (1930).
  • Theodor Lessing : Halsmann: tragedy of youth. (1930), In: Rainer Marwedel (Ed.): Haarmann - The story of a werewolf. Munich 1995, pp. 245–249 and The Halsmann Process. Prager Tagblatt from September 14, 1929 Anno .
  • Jane Halsman Bello, Steve Bello (Eds.): Philippe Halsman: A Retrospective. Photographs from the Halsman Family Collection. (Introduction: Mary Panzer). Edition Stemmle, Zurich / New York 1998, ISBN 3-908161-56-8 . (The American original edition was published by Bulfinch Press / Little Brown and Company (Inc.), Boston, MA.)
  • Niko Hofinger: "(...) people don't like to talk about the trial, there are still too many strangers there." The Halsmann affair in Innsbruck 1928–31. In: Michael Gehler, Hubert Sickinger (eds.): Political scandals and affairs in Austria: From Mayerling to Waldheim. Wien – Thaur – Munich 1995, pp. 148–187. (Detailed historical-critical analysis. Download from academia.edu )
  • Martin Pollack : Charges of parricide: The Philipp Halsmann case. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-552-05206-2 .
  • Henryk M. Broder : Death in the Zillertal: An alleged patricide in Tyrol is reopened. The research is a literary masterpiece. But the case remains unsolved. In: Der Tagesspiegel No. 17913, Berlin, October 14, 2002; P. 27.
  • Deborah Weinstein & Allen Arpadi, "Prior Life: The Tragedy That Transformed a Master." American Photo , May – June 2000, pp. 60–64, 104.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bertrand Rocher: Philippe Halsman: Le Jeu de Paume rend hommage au photographe qui a fait sauter les plus grandes stars , Grazia , October 20, 2015; the freely translated quote in the original: "Je conseille souvent aux jeunes photographes d'épouser la concurrence, c'est le meilleur moyen de la neutraliser."; Retrieved Nov. 5, 2015.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Halsman, Philippe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Halsmann, Philipp (maiden name); Halsmans, Filips
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Latvian-French-American portrait photographer
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1979
Place of death New York City