Photographer Profile: Lillian Bassman

“Through Lillian’s lens, a photograph became a sensual work of art, conveying the movement and mystery of the woman of style.”            

- Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar

In the early 1970s Lillian Bassman, among the most important fashion photographers of the 20th century.

Lillian Bassman took her most significant pictures from the late '40s to the early '60s, most were published in Harper's Bazaar under the stewardship of the magazine's influential art director Alexey Brodovitch and belong distinctly to the era of "Mad Men" New York.

The clothes have a structured beauty; the gloves are mandatory; the necks are long. Elegant men with cigarettes between their fingers occasionally enter the frame, encountering women who appear utterly indifferent to their attention. The perversions of inequality are absent; what appears instead is the glamour of a protracted cultural moment in which women were free from any expectation of sexual pursuit. The power of Ms. Bassman’s photographs is the power of a woman who is never moved to make a call.

Ms. Bassman, a key figure in the glamorous world of fashion magazines in the 1940s and ‘50s, died on February 13, 2012 at the age of 94.

Some of her works: 

Evelyn Tripp for Harper's Bazaar, circa 1947

Anne Saint-Marie, New York, Chanel Advertising, 1958

By Night, Shining Wool and Towering Heel.
Evelyn Tripp, New York, Harper´s Bazaar, 1954

Carmen having tea, circa 1950

Anneliese Seubert, Paris, NY Times Magazine, 1996

Barbara Mullen, 1950

Harper's Bazaar in December 1949

Jean Shrimpton, 1955

Across The Restaurant, Barbara Mullen wearing Jacques Fath, 1949

Barbara Mullen, Flat Hat, Bare Back, Harper's Bazaar, 1958 

A Report to Skeptics, Suzy Parker, New York, Harper's Bazaar, 1952

An image from the show at KMR Arts, in Washington Depot, Conn.

Barbara Mullen, New York, Harper's Bazaar, c. 1958.

Corset.

July Vogue 1956

Times Square The Night Fantastic, Anneliese Seubert, 1997.

The V-Back Evening, Suzy Parker, 1955.

It’s A Cinch,  Carmen, 1951.

Betty Threat, 1957.

Margy Cato.

Margy Cato, Junior Bazaar, 1950.

Mary Jane Russell, 1950.

Untitled, Model with Raincoat and Umbrella, 1950.

More Fashion Mileage Per Dress, Barbara Vaughn, NY, Harper´s Bazaar, 1956.

Night Bloom, Anneliese Seubert,
ball gown by John Galliano for Haute Couture Givenchy.

Barbara Mullen wearing Jean Patou, 1949.

Back, Barbara Mullen, 1950.

Chanel advert, 1963.

Untitled, Model in Gloves and Pearl Earrings, 1950.

Fantasy On The Dance Floor, Barbara Mullen, 1949.

An outtake from photographs taken for the November 1948 issue of Harper's Bazaar. 

Blowing Kiss, Barbara Mullen, New York, 1958

 "Dovima, New York," 1954, reinterpreted in 1994.











Source: NYTimes, rachttlg