All Images Copyright Lillian Bassman
The marvelous talented Lillian Bassman
The black and white fashion photographs of Lillian Bassman are at the same time elegant, modern, sexy, poetic, powerful and jam packed full of emotion. Man! did she know how to create images. They leave me breathless. You want to be that woman in her photos.
Lillian Bassman now in her 90's photographed fashion between the 1940's and 1960's for Harpers Bazaar and worked with rockstar art director Alexey Brodovitch. You may recall Richard Avedon names him as one of the greatest influences in his career. Lillian Bassman's images are compositional masterpieces full of incredible angles, wonderful poses and a whole repertoire of emotions. Sigh..
Tired of the way fashion photography was heading at the end of the 70's 's she did the unthinkable and hurled out all her negatives. Oh no!! A lifetime of work ended up in the rubbish bin. Poetry down the drain.
In the 90's Lillian Bassman found a bag of negatives that had missed the almightly clean up and well into her 80's at that point she discovered Photoshop. Her photos had the chance of another life after been hidden for twenty years. And thank-god that bag of negs survived.
For me her images are incredible portrait inspiration. Lillian Bassman is the master of the pose, she creates wonderful 'shapes' with her portrait poses, has an incredible relationship with light and her women are feminine, beautiful and modern. Lucky for us she released a wonderful book called Women full of these incredible images.
Brava Lillian you are more than an inspiration to all us women photographers. For me you are a demi-god!
On another note fashion photographer Stuart Michael did an interview with me last week and as I was floating around the canals of Venice I didn't have a chance to post the link. So if you would like to read some thoughts on my photography career check out Stuart Michael's Blog.
Carla xx
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When I got to the part where Lillian threw out her negatives I nearly fell off my chair in horror. Thank goodness I didn't, as I had my baby on my lap. And thank goodness Lillian missedthat one bag.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Carla, this is amazing...xo
ReplyDeleteWhat a way to start off my week! With such beauty! Her story is amazing isn't it. There was a good article in the NY Times about her career path when "Women" came out if I remember correctly. But you said it perfectly, who wouldn't want to be one of these women?
ReplyDeleteuaauuu lindas fotos
ReplyDeleteMilton
love this post, carla! and I loved reading your interview :-) hooray!
ReplyDeleteINCREDIBLE work and thank you so much for sharing...I just ordered the book! Lovely article too...have a romantic day of love with your man tomorrow!
ReplyDeletenathalie
Bravo Lillian + thank god for the rescued negatives. Wonderful post. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
ReplyDeleteI'm never quite sure why artists would want to destroy their work. Seems that fate played a helpful hand in saving those few negatives. But who knows what was lost.
ReplyDeleteLoved your interview and this post - thanks for sharing. F x
ReplyDeleteI love these photos; absolute beauty in every shot. What a legend Lillian Bassman is; and also Alexei Brodovitch. I really enjoyed reading your interview too.
ReplyDeleteHelen:)
What an inspiration, Carla. I hope I'm still using Photoshop when I'm 80 and discovering new tools as well.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview with you, too!
xo
Love love love this post Carla. I will have to buy one of her books. So glamourous.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of decorating my beach house exclusively in fashion prints, and most likely B&W fashion photography (or B&W drawings) and definitely from earlier eras such as those you showed today.
For instance, I already have a classic Audrey Hepburn poster from Breakfast at Tiffanys...
Such stuff as dreams are made on!
ReplyDelete~ Clare x