Photos By Philippe Halsman

Ever wonder how Philippe Halsman created this iconic image of Marilyn Monroe?

In the spring of 1952, Halsman put his signature technique to work when Life sent him to Hollywood to photograph Marilyn Monroe. Halsman asked Monroe to stand in a corner, and placed his camera directly in front of her. Later, he recalled that she looked "as if she had been pushed into the corner cornered with no way to escape." Then Halsman, his assistant, and Life's reporter staged a "fiery" competition for Monroe's attention. "Surrounded by three admiring men she smiled, flirted, giggled and wriggled with delight. During the hour I kept her cornered she enjoyed herself royally, and I . . . took between 40 and 50 pictures."

In this widely familiar portrait, Monroe wears a white evening gown and stands with her back against two walls, one dark, the other light, her eyes half closed and her dark, lipsticked mouth partly open. Yet Halsman deftly avoided any explicit representation of the true subject of the picture. Using the euphemistic language of the time, Halsman's assistant admired the photographer's ability to make "suggestive" pictures of beautiful women which still showed "good taste," emphasizing "expression" rather than "physical assets." And then the assistant added, "Halsman is very adept at provoking the expression he wants."

Also in that article on Halsman is a section on "Jumpology". While this photo of Halsman jumping with Monroe is not specifically addressed, Halsman claimed the act of jumping allows the photographer to capture a more real side of celebrities. He is quoted as saying, "When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears."



As for the work it took for Halsman to get those famous Salvador Dali photos, you'll need to see Salvador Dali Bloopers at Infomercantile.