Philippe Halsman: Dali AtomicusBy: Brandon Luhring (January 30, 2002)
The portrait of Halsman's friend and colleague masterfully captured the essence of the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali, while at the same time playfully giving reference to the painter's own work entitled “Leda Atomica” both literally and figuratively. It was shortly after World War II and the world had just been shoved violently into the atomic era. Dali's surreal paintings, at that time, conceptually portrayed the idea of the atom and how, through the repulsion of protons and electrons, everything was constantly in a state of suspension. The day after Halsman and Dali discussed “Leda Atomica” for the first time, Halsman contacted Dali about the idea he had for a photograph (Halsman, Philippe 54). The two worked together on the concept for the photo, as they often did after meeting each other in the early 1940s (Halsman, Yvonne 12). The two artists had Harold Edgerton's “Coronet” milk drop photo, from the 1930s, at the forefront of their discussions. They were mesmerized by the idea of suspension captured in it. They argued back and forth on aspects such as blowing up a chicken and whether to use milk or water (Halsman, Philippe 54-55). Wanting to avoid animal cruelty laws in the United States and knowing that the photograph would be shown in Europe, where people wouldn't relish the idea of wasting milk, they agreed to use unharmed cats and water for the photograph. Halsman set up his New York studio and using the 4 x 5 format, twin-lens reflex camera that he had designed in 1947 (Bello 206), he prepared to capture one of his most memorable photographs. He suspended an easel, two paintings by Dali (one of which was “Leda Atomica”), and a stepping stool; had his wife, Yvonne, hold a chair in the air (Jeffrey 192); on the count of three, his assistants threw three cats and a bucket of water into the air; and on the count of four, Dali jumped and Halsman snapped the picture. While his assistants mopped the floor and consoled the cats, Halsman went to the darkroom, developed the film, and reemerged to do it again. “Six hours and twenty-eight throws later, the result satisfied my striving for perfection,” wrote Halsman in his book Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas. “My assistants and I were wet, dirty, and near complete exhaustion—only the cats still looked like new.” The surreal and hysterical photograph was immediately given a two-page spread in LIFE magazine, for whom Halsman had taken many portraits of celebrities and other prominent people. Overnight, it seemed, the unusual photo was pirated worldwide, reprinted, and written about, with no payment to the artist. Later, the picture was included in Edward Steichen's selection, Photography in Retrospect (Halsman, Philippe 55). In the Spring of 2000 a print of it even reached the hallowed galleries of the Ball State University Museum of Art in a photography exhibit - and that's not too shabby. Halsman's work before “Dali Atomicus” was predominantly portraiture for magazines. He had an uncanny ability for helping celebrities drop their guard and allow him to capture their true personality. He worked in Paris for magazines such as Vogue, VU, and Voilà. At the start of World War II, Halsman, then 34 years old, moved to New York City where he found work with LIFE magazine. By the time he stopped working for LIFE, Halsman had attained 101 covers for the magazine. Included were unforgettable images of icons such as Albert Einstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, and Pablo Picasso (Halsman, Yvonne 120-137). After “Dali Atomicus,” Halsman continued magazine work and also produced several books. In his book written with, and about, his old friend Salvador Dali entitled Dali's Mustache, they conducted a photographic interview where Halsman would ask a question like, “Why do you paint?” Dali's answer, “Because I love art,” was accompanied by a photo of Dali's mustache resembling a dollar sign (Dali 41-43). This sort of humor appeared all throughout Halsman's career. Like “Dali Atomicus,” Dali's Mustache also covered an atomic question that featured a photo that appears as if a nuclear mushroom cloud is coming out of the painter's mouth (Dali 113-115). The entire book was an exercise in imagination for both of them, and happened to be a terrible flop financially for the publishing company (Halsman, Philippe 35). In his 1959 release, Philippe Halsman's Jump Book, Halsman gave a more in-depth look at the concept of suspension. “Jumpology,” as he referred to his new science, is a method of interpreting someone's personality from a photograph of that person jumping (Halsman, Philippe 76-77). People tend to pose for photographers, but when asked to jump, they reveal whether they are rigid, fun, or mentally unstable. It's unknown how Halsman convinced so many self-conscious celebrities that such photographs were a risk all his own, yet many agreed and even allowed them to be published (Bello 11). Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas was a popular resource for photographers who were “pregnant with an idea, [but] unable to deliver it.” Admittedly telling his readers that they will experience “labor pains” throughout the delivery, the book discussed ways that photographers could consistently create unusual photos. In it, Halsman revealed his mental processes including some that are apparent in “Dali Atomicus.” Namely, “the rule of the unusual technique,” “the rule of the added unusual feature,” and “the rule of the missing feature.” His “unusual technique” for “Dali Atomicus” is quite obviously the suspension of objects, which gives the photograph an unnatural feel. He applied the “unusual feature” by hurling cats into the air and splashing them with water. Finishing the piece with the “missing feature” of gravity. All his processes meshed together to create an unusual photographic idea that has quite literally paid off. A. F. Bucknell may have disregarded Halsman's work in his statement about 1940s portraiture, but the rest of the world did not. In 1958 Halsman was listed in Popular Photography's “World's Ten Greatest Photographers,” he received the “Life Achievement in Photography Award” from the American Society of Magazine Photographers in 1975, as well as holding numerous large exhibitions worldwide (Bello 208-209). Had Bucknell been fortunate enough to have seen “Dali Atomicus” and study Halsman's other work prior to his statement, he most certainly would have reconsidered his comment.
Works Cited
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In 1948 A. F. Bucknell identified portraiture as the most lacking area in the entire realm of photography
Photograph Copyright held by the artist