The work of Lillian Bassman (*1917) exudes a captivating elegance and a sure sense of style. As longstanding art director for Harper’s Bazaar, she shaped both the changing style of the magazine’s layout and the fashion photography of the 1940s to 60s. In the 1950s she introduced a new feminine ideal – long-limbed and swan-necked – into her atmospherically charged scenes. By experimenting with various photographic exposures and darkroom techniques, she lent her black-and-white photographs a unique, almost painterly quality.
The urge to experiment also hallmarks the work of her husband Paul Himmel (1914 – 2009), who worked for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and many other magazines during the course of his career. He wrote photographic history in particular with his 1950s pictures for the New York City Ballet, which capture dance passages not as stop-action poses but rather as blurred movement studies. Himmel rose to fame with his photographs for the worldrenowned 1955 exhibition The Family of Man, curated by Edward Steichen.
This book shows heretofore unpublished material, also affording glimpses of the private life of the artist couple.


"This is a remarkable book, presenting the work of this artist couple whose artistic inquisitiveness inspired a continuous reinvention of both their visual languages." Eyemazing, 02/2010

Editor: Brigitte Woischnik, Ingo Taubhorn
Authors: Adelheid Rasche, Bernd Stiegler, Boris von Brauchitsch, Brigitte Woischnik, Britta Scholz, Eric Himmel, Hans-Michael Koetzle, Holger Liebs, Ingo Taubhorn, Martin Jürgens
Artists: Lillian Bassman, Paul Himmel

Hardcover w. dustjacket
24 x 30 cm
416 pages
360 color ills.
German/English
available
ISBN 978-3-86828-101-9
48 Euro
2009