Halsman Philippe (2 May 1906, Riga — 25 June 1979, New York) — outstanding mid-20th-century photographer and one of the founders of surrealism in photography.
His father, Morduch Halsman, was a dentist, and his mother, Ita Grintuch, was a teacher.
At the age of fifteen he took his first photographs.
He received his education in Germany at the Dresden University of Technology, where he studied electrical engineering.
In September 1928, a tragic incident occurred during a hiking trip in the Austrian Alps when Halsman’s father fell from a great height and died. There were no witnesses, and Halsman was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for patricide.
In 1929, the Supreme Court of Austria overturned the Tyrolean court’s decision and ordered a retrial. Halsman was found guilty of manslaughter, and his sentence was reduced to four years.
The case attracted worldwide attention. Many prominent figures spoke in his defense, including Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and Thomas Mann.
On 1 October 1930, Austrian President Wilhelm Miklas granted Halsman a pardon on the condition that he permanently leave Austria.
In 1930 he moved to Paris.
In 1932 he opened a photography studio in Paris and soon gained recognition by publishing his work in the magazines Vogue, Vu, and Voilà.
This period includes his portraits of André Malraux, Paul Valéry, Jean Painlevé, Marc Chagall, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, and Le Corbusier.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Halsman obtained a U.S. visa with the assistance of Albert Einstein and moved to New York in the autumn of 1940.
In 1941 he met Salvador Dalí and maintained creative and personal ties with him for thirty years.
In 1954 he published the book Dali’s Mustache, which included numerous photographic portraits of the Spanish artist. This period also includes his famous photograph Dali Atomicus.
In 1945 Halsman was elected the first president of the newly established American Society of Magazine Photographers.
He became a staff photographer for Life magazine.
Halsman created celebrated photographic portraits of Albert Einstein, Salvador Dalí, Fernandel, Brigitte Bardot, Henri Matisse, Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, and John F. Kennedy.
His photographic series Jump became a classic of photographic art. It included more than 200 portraits of famous people captured in mid-jump.
Portraits by Halsman of Albert Einstein, John Steinbeck, and diplomat Adlai Stevenson II were reproduced on United States postage stamps.
France also issued a postage stamp featuring his portrait of André Gide.
In 1958, according to an international poll conducted by Popular Photography magazine, Halsman was named one of the ten greatest photographers in the world.
In 1963, an exhibition of his works was held at the Smithsonian Institution.
In 1969 he became the official photographer of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
In 1975 he received the American Society of Magazine Photographers Award for outstanding contribution to photographic art.
His works were exhibited in Paris, New York, and Tokyo.
Collections of his works are preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and the National Library in Paris.
In 2001–2002, a retrospective exhibition of his works was shown at the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Paris Photography Institute.
In 2006, a monument to Halsman by sculptor Grigory Pototsky was installed in the lobby of the Riga Town Hall. It became the world’s first monument dedicated to a photographer. Later it was moved near the house where Halsman spent his childhood.
Cover of a photography book by Philippe Halsman