Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman (June 15, 1917 – February 13, 2012) was an American photographer and painter.

Early life and background Her parents were Jewish intellectuals who emigrated to the United States from Ukraine (then in Russia) in 1905 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in Brooklyn and Greenwich Village, New York, and studied at the Textile High School in Manhattan with future artist Alexey Brodovitch and graduated in 1933.

Career Bassman's photo Fantasy On The Dance Floor: Barbara (Elise) Mullen in a Christian Dior Dress, Paris. First published in Harper's Bazaar in 1949. From the 1940s until the 1960s Bassman worked as a fashion photographer and art director for Junior Bazaar and Harper's Bazaar where she promoted the careers of photographers such as Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Louis Faurer and Arnold Newman. Under the guidance of the Russian emigrant, Alexey Brodovitch, she began to photograph her model subjects primarily in black and white. Her work was published for the most part in Harper's Bazaar from 1950 to 1965.

She worked with digital technology and abstract color photography into her nineties to create a new series of work. She used Photoshop for her image manipulation. and even after her death her work has been exhibited internationally.

Personal life She first met her future husband, photographer Paul Himmel (born 1914), at Coney Island at age six. They met again at 13, and started living together when she was 15. They were married in 1935, and had two children. It's a Cinch, 1951 1993 "Vanité", Palais de Tokyo 1994 Jackson Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia 1994 "Homage to Lillian Bassman," Caroussel du Louvre, Paris 1997 Fashion Institute of Technology, New York 1997 Peter Fetterman Gallery, Los Angeles 1999 "Les dames de Bazaar" Rencontres de la photographie, Arles 2002 Garden Prado, Madrid 2003 Galerie f5,6 in Munich, Germany 2004 Staley-Wise Gallery, New York 2005 Farmani Gallery, Los Angeles, USA 2005 A touch of mystery - Triennale der Photographie Hamburg 2005, Photography Monika Mohr Galerie, Hamburg 2006 Selektion # 1 - Arbeiten in Schwarz/Weiß, Galerie f5,6, München 2006 Retrospective, Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica, USA 2010 Retrospective, The Wapping Project, London, UK 2009-2010 Retrospective, The Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany 2014 "Signature of Elegance," Chanel Nexus Hall, Tokyo, Japan 2014–2015 Retrospective, KunstHausWien, Vienna, Austria 2016 Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, USA 2021 The New Woman Behind the Camera, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York