Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman, is now 93 years old and still working although now in poor health.
Her first fashion picture was published in 1947 in Junior Bazaar,
three years later she went to photograph the Paris collections.
She created a new appreciation of black and white fashion photography.
Her pictures were atmospheric and grainy in appearance
and in the main black and white.
She began as a fashion illustrator in 1940 joining
Alexey Brodovitch's classes.
After a few weeks he suggested she switched from fashion drawing
to graphic design and by the end of the year he made her
his apprentice at Harper's Bazaar.
She says she still uses the same techniques in Photoshop as she did in
the darkroom...
"the palette has changed but the end result is the same."
She initially hung up her camera in the mid-seventies.
In an extract from The Times Magazine she says:
"Models were coming in and striking a, b and c poses - I said forget it -
this is not how I work.
For me it was a gesture, the neck, the throat, the arch of the back."
She shot her final fashion shoot in 2004.
In an extract from The Times Magazine she says:
"One day I booked a 28 year old model, but a younger replacement
was sent, with a beautiful body, but the face of a 12 year old and
I couldn't face the fact you had this 'child' modelling clothes that a
woman in her thirties should wear.
That was my last shoot."
The sensuous black and white photographs are showing in an exhibition
at the Donna Karan store in London.
There is also a series of talks: for details go to:
http://www.donnakaran.com/donnas-journal/love-love-love/e884fc71-857d-403d-85ba-403cc976f612/lillian-bassman
She was re-discovered in the 1990's when a bag containing hundreds of
her photographs was discovered, photographs she had thrown out
over 20-years ago.
She is now considered one of the top fashion photographers
of the 20th Century.
This photograph entitled
"Across the Room"
was a photograph she took in 1949...my husband gave me a
gift of this print which is above my desk in my study...
one of my favourites...
Read more about this remarkable lady in Deborah Solomon's book entitled
Lillian Bassman Women
It shows over 200 of her best images and is a truly
stunning book to own...I can't recommend it enough...
Lillian and her camera
