Jump!
In honor of the fashionable social media practice of late, we are going to dip our toes in the “Throwback Thursday” pool….
Famed portrait photographer Philippe Halsman had a way with people, which certainly helped him build a body of iconic photography work. His conceptual approach to a medium that had been, up until then, largely used to capture reality was groundbreaking at the time. His collaboration in the late 1940s with surrealist artist Salvador Dali resulted in some of his most notable works. He later delved into perhaps his most famous series, Jump, in which he photographed movie stars, politicians, entertainers, artists, and authors to jump before his camera. In his own words, the late Halsman comments: “Starting in the early 1950s I asked every famous or important person I photographed to jump for me. I was motivated by a genuine curiosity. After all, life has taught us to control and disguise our facial expressions, but it has not taught us to control our jumps. I wanted to see famous people reveal in a jump their ambition or their lack of it, their self-importance or their insecurity, and many other traits.”
