Unusual, dynamic, original and at times surreal: Philippe Halsman’s photography will never leave you feeling untouched or indifferent. This twentieth-century legend got to shoot personalities with rare confidence of the calibre of Richard Nixon, Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham, Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe – and in the most unusual of poses and. His pictures both amaze and surprise – they clearly reflect the strong influence of Hollywood cinema and the study of psychoanalysis so in vogue in the mid-part of the last century.
 

Many of Halsman’s photographs made the front cover of LIFE such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor caught in the vivacious act of jumping and featured in Philippe Halsman’s Jump Book. This tome was an out and out celebration of “Jumpology” the notion whereby the very act of jumping is believed to have the power to distract us from everything else thus revealing the real traits of our face – wholly stripped of conventions and social masks.
So next time you see a photo-shoot involving “flying” models, just remember where it all started and where this dynamic approach had its origins. From Halsman way back!