Jumpology by Philippe Halsman

[Eva Marie Saint, 1954]

[Audrey]

[Duke & Dutchess of Windsor, 1956]

[Salvador Dali, 1949]

[Grace Kelly, 1959]

[Professor J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1958]

[Dianna Dorrs, 1956]

[Edward Steichen, 1955]

[Jean Seberg with Cat, 1959]

[Weegee, 1961]

[Halsman & Marilyn Monroe]

[Richard Nixon, 1955]

Famous People Jumping!

And I’m amazed. I love his eye for composition, and the way he managed to establish a strong, silent, yet very visible dialogue with his objects. According to Halsman, the fascinating results of his many encounters with artists, stars and other celebrities, were much due to his psychology skills, his trick being to “provoke the victim, amusing him with jokes, lulling him with silence, or asking impertinent questions which his best friend would be afraid to voice”. He even developed his own, quite amusing, but rather sensible, theory about jumping. Jumpology, Halsman liked to refer to it 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”. Quite right. Hope you enjoy these selected works!

Bonjour Philippe! \o/