Honnef, Klaus, and Gabriele Honnef-Harling, eds.Von
Ko ̈rpern und anderen Dingen Deutsche Fotografie im 20.
Jahrhundert. Heidelberg: Galerie der Hauptstadt Prag,
2003.
Roters, Eberhard.Heinz Hajek-Halke. Fotografie, Foto-
Grafik, Licht-Grafik. Berlin: Galerie Kunze, 1978.
Der Nachlass von Heinz Hajek-Halke. Cologne: Galerie
Rudolf Kicken, 1994.PHILIPPE HALSMAN
American
Blending technical precision with ‘‘psychological
portraiture,’’ Philippe Halsman made unique, rich
photographs of mid-twentieth-century icons. His pho-
tographs of actors, politicians, artists, academics, and
other luminaries adorned the pages of the big Amer-
ican picture magazines from 1941 to 1979. He had the
unmatched number of 101Lifecovers to his credit.
During the height of his career his work was so widely
admired that in a 1958 poll conducted byPopular
Photography, Halsman was named one of the ‘‘Ten
Greatest Photographers.’’ Beginning in 1941, Halsman
explored surrealism in a decades-long collaboration
with the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali. The
collaboration led to startling photographs, perhaps the
most recognized and elaborate of which isDali Atom-
icus. In this dream-like photograph, Dali, a canvas, a
chair, two cats, and a splash of water all appear to defy
gravity by hanging suspended in midair.
Born in 1906 in Riga, Latvia, Halsman was raised
by his father, a dentist, and his mother, a school
principal. Young Philippe had an upper-middle-
class, Jewish upbringing with education in the arts
and in several languages. His first foray into photo-
graphy was in 1921, when he began using his father’s
old 912-cm view camera to photograph family and
friends. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in
1924 and then from 1924 to 1928 studied electrical
engineering at the Technische Hochschule in Dres-
den, Germany. While studying in Dresden, he began
to work as a part-time freelance photographer. In
1928 while the family vacationed in the Austrian
Alps, a hiking accident resulted in his father’s death.
Anti-semitism in the area at that time contributed to
the accusation, trial, and conviction of Philippe for
the death of his father. In 1930, after serving two
years in prison, Halsman was freed due to the efforts
of important intellectuals, including Albert Einstein
and Thomas Mann. Halsman rejoined his family in
Paris in 1931. He studied briefly at the Sorbonne in
1931, writing French poetry, before pursuing photo-
graphy on his own. In 1932, he started his own
portrait studio in the Montparnasse section of Paris.
From an early point in his development as a portrait
photographer, Halsman’s approach was to reveal and
capture something about the private inner person that
was not normally seen by the public. This brought
depth and life to his portraits. Later in his career, Hals-
man often wrote about ‘‘psychological portraiture’’:If the photograph of a human being does not show a
deep psychological insight it is not a true portrait but an
empty likeness. Therefore, my main goal in portraiture is
neither composition, nor play of light, nor showing the
subject in front of a meaningful background, nor crea-
tion of a new visual image. All these elements can make
an empty picture a visually interesting image, but in
order to be a portrait the photograph must capture the
essence of its subject.
(Halsman 1972, 7)Halsman’s technical approach evolved from his de-
sire to render clear, precise images showing emotion.
Careful lighting rendered images with dramatic high-
lights and shadows. From the start of his career, Hals-
man focused sharply, eschewing the more fashionable
soft-focus technique. He needed large negatives for
great detail. The classic 912-cm view camera that
he began his career with was capable of all of this but
was slow. The turning point came after a discouraging
sitting with Andre Gide, a writer who Halsman
‘‘admired above any other.’’ Halsman decided he
needed a camera capable of quickly capturing the emo-
tion on his subject’s face before it disappeared. The
Leica, Rolleiflex, and Hasselblad, which allowed simul-
taneous viewing and photographing, were all tools that
Halsman used, but their negatives were still too small to
satisfy him. Halsman’s compromise was to design a 9
12-cm twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera, built in 1936 by
the grandson of the first camera maker. In 1946 heHAJEK-HALKE, HEINZ