Lillian Bassman (June 15, 1917 – February 13, 2012) was an American

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

and painter.

Early life and background

Her parents were Jewish intellectuals who emigrated to the United States from

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

(then in Russia) in 1905 and settled in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. She grew up in Brooklyn and

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

, New York, and studied at the Textile High School in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

with future artist

Alexey Brodovitch Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch (also Brodovich; , ; 1898 – April 15, 1971) was a Belarusian-American photographer, designer and instructor who is most famous for his art direction of fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' from 1934 to ...

and graduated in 1933.

Career

From the 1940s until the 1960s Bassman worked as a

fashion photographer Fashion photography is a genre of photography that portrays clothing and other fashion items. This sometimes includes haute couture garments. It typically consists of a fashion photographer taking pictures of a dressed model in a photographic stu ...

and

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

for '' Junior Bazaar'' and ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

'' where she promoted the careers of photographers such as

Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', '' Vogue'' and '' Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and ...

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss American photographer and documentary filmmaker. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his ...

, Louis Faurer and

Arnold Newman Arnold Abner Newman (March 3, 1918 – June 6, 2006) was an American photographer, noted for his "environmental portraits" of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images. In 2006, he was induc ...

. Under the guidance of the Russian

emigrant Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

, she began to photograph her model subjects primarily in black and white. Her work was published for the most part in ''Harper's Bazaar'' from 1950 to 1965. By the 1970s Bassman's interest in pure form in her fashion photography was out of vogue. She turned to her own photo projects and abandoned fashion photography. In doing so she tossed out 40 years of negatives and prints—her life's work. A forgotten bag filled with hundreds of images was discovered over 20 years later. Bassman's fashion photographic work began to be re-appreciated in the 1990s. She worked with digital technology and abstract color photography into her nineties to create a new series of work. She used

Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics editin ...

for her image manipulation. The most notable qualities about her photographic work are the high contrasts between light and dark, the graininess of the finished photos, and the geometric placement and camera angles of the subjects. Bassman became one of the last great woman photographers in the world of fashion. A generation later, Bassman's pioneering photography and her mentor

's bold cropping and layout innovations were a seminal influence on Sam Haskins and his black and white work of the sixties Bassman was featured in the 2010 Swedish Halle of Femmes book, ''Hall of Femmes: Lillian Bassman'', and even after her death her work has been exhibited internationally. Bassman died on February 13, 2012, at age 94.

Personal life

She first met her future husband, photographer Paul Himmel (born 1914), at

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...

at age six. They met again at 13, and started living together when she was 15. They were married in 1935, and had two children. Himmel died in 2009 after 73 years of marriage.

Notable works

* ''Anneliese Seubert,'' 1997 * ''It's a Cinch,'' 1951 * ''Betty Beihn, Nude I,'' 1950/2012

Exhibitions (selection)

* 1974 Staempfli Gallery, New York * 1993 Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York * 1993 "Vanité", Palais de Tokyo * 1994 Jackson Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia * 1994 "Homage to Lillian Bassman," Caroussel du Louvre, Paris * 1997

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

, New York * 1997 Peter Fetterman Gallery, Los Angeles * 1999 "Les dames de Bazaar" Rencontres de la photographie, Arles * 2002 Garden Prado, Madrid * 2003 Galerie f5,6 in Munich, Germany * 2004 Staley-Wise Gallery, New York * 2005 Farmani Gallery, Los Angeles, USA * 2005 A touch of mystery - Triennale der Photographie Hamburg 2005, Photography Monika Mohr Galerie, Hamburg * 2006 Selektion # 1 - Arbeiten in Schwarz/Weiß, Galerie f5,6, München * 2006 Retrospective, Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica, USA * 2010 Retrospective, The Wapping Project, London, UK * 2009-2010 Retrospective, The

Deichtorhallen The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany, is one of Europe's largest art centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are notable examples of industrial architecture from the transitional period ...

, Hamburg, Germany * 2014 "Signature of Elegance," Chanel Nexus Hall, Tokyo, Japan * 2014–2015 Retrospective,

KunstHausWien The KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhibiti ...

, Vienna, Austria * 2016 Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, USA * 2021 ''The New Woman Behind the Camera'',

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York

References

External links

Photographs by Lillian Bassman
* William Grimes

''The New York Times'', 2012/02/14. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassman, Lillian Artists from Brooklyn American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent 1917 births 2012 deaths American women photographers American fashion photographers Artists from Manhattan People from Greenwich Village 21st-century American women