famous photographer PHILIP HALSMAN

Philipe Halsman: A Retrospective

From the 1940s through the 1970s, Philippe Halsman's (1906-1979) portraits of world famous figures appeared on the covers, and in the pages, of the major picture magazines, such as Look and the Saturday Evening Post. Life magazine published 101 covers by Halsman, a record unmatched by any other photographer. The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has organized the first full review of a true master with the exhibition Philippe Halsman: A Retrospective, which is open at The Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester, NH, through April 17, 2000.

The 87 portraits in the show include vintage prints drawn from the Halsman Family Collection and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as prints from the Currier's collection. The show spans Halsman's career, which began in the 1930s in Paris with portraits of French writers André Gide and André Malraux.

"Halsman is one of the leading portrait photographers of the mid-twentieth century," said Kurt J. Sundstrom, Assistant Curator at the Currier Gallery of Art. "Virtually every major personality in the arts and entertainment and a long list of important world leaders sat for his camera including Pablo Picasso, Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, Winston Churchill, John Steinbeck, John F. Kennedy, Marian Anderson, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ingrid Bergman, Aldous Huxley, and Alfred Hitchcock," Sundstrom added.

           
Philippe Halsman was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1906, and moved to Paris in 1932. By 1936, he was known as one of the best portrait photographers in France, with book jackets and magazines, fashion shoots and private commissions to his credit. In the summer of 1940, Halsman's career came to a halt as Hitler's forces invaded Paris. His wife, daughter, sister and brother-in-law, who all held French passports, immigrated to America, but as a Latvian citizen, Halsman was unable to obtain a visa. Finally, after months of waiting, Albert Einstein, an acquaintance of Halsman who was already in America, intervened on his behalf. Halsman arrived in New York in November 1940 with little more than his cameras to start again, this time in his adopted homeland. (left: Philippe Halsman, Albert Einstein, silver gelatin print, 1947, ©Halsman Estate)

Halsman's 30-year association with Life began in October 1942, with an assignment to shoot a story on Lilly Daché's spring hat designs. One of these photographs became his first cover for the magazine. As Life hoped, Halsman's images proved so compelling that people passing newsstands stopped in their tracks. For Halsman, however, his work went far beyond taking pictures of celebrities for popular publications. He said, "This fascination with the human face has never left me... Every face 1 see seems to hide -- and sometimes, fleetingly, to reveal -- the mystery of another human being... Capturing this revelation became the goal and passion of my life."

                                                             
                                       1992 merilyn monroe

famous photographer DAVID LACHAPELLE

david lachapelle

 david lachapelle was born in connecticut, north carolina in 1968.
 he studied at the art student's league and north carolina school
 of arts. at age of 19, mr. lachapelle went to new york
 where he met andy warhol. he began his photography career created by warhol.
 david lachapelle is a photographer who tends to create his own visionary world,
 rather than reproduce what's visible in the world, a photography style that can be
 compared to no one.
 david lachapelle has evolved his photography into an idiosyncratic and highly personal
 combination of reportage and surrealism.
 lachapelle is one of photography's brightest stars, bringing high intensity,
 larger than life images to the pages of magazines worldwide
 (as i-D, arena, the new york time magazine, rolling stones, vogue, the face,
 the london sunday times and vanity fair).
 ---

 initially distinguished by his campy fixation with white-trash culture,
 lachapelle is also known for his groundbreaking use of computer
 manipulation and futuristic fashion shoots and for placing hollywood celebrities
 -- from madonna, uma thurman, elton john to drew barrymore to
 the X-files' david duchovny --
 in wildly imaginative and often compromising erotically charged settings.
 la chapelle's monstrosities are that breed of gaunt, blemishless human built
 and enslaved by heavy makeup, lighting and the glorifying voodoo of photographic
 attention, e.g., models, transsexuals and ... leonardo di caprio.
 it is a prophecy of even scurvier spiritual illness yet to come from our
 media-centric society, in the not-so-distant future.
 ---

 in the last years he also created music videos: the station promo he
 directed for MTV, which recast a scene from the tragi-camp classic
 'whatever happened to baby jane with an aging courtney love and madonna;
 the 'natural blues' video for moby...
 ---

 recipient of the 1997 international center of photography's infinity award
 and the 1996 VH1 fashion award for photographer of the year,
 la chapelle creates images that are cultural cues as well as advertising campaigns
 for such prestigious accounts as estee lauder, prescriptives, volvo, levis, diesel jeans.

 his first book 'lachapelle land,' was published
 by callaway editions / simon & shuster in november 1996.
 in 1999 followed his second book 'hotel lachapelle'.

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 his first major retrospective show in italy,
 galleria carla sozzani, milan

 september 27 to november 4, 2001

David LaChapelle's pictures are colourful to say the least. They are like a candy store after dark on ecstasy. He has been called everything from humorous to grotesque. Lots of his pictures are very sexualized, but come on, sex is a part of life

                                                      The world needs more avantgarde people

                                                  
                                                                       David Lachapelle