Chiiz Volume 1 : Pushkar Photography

OLD IS GOLD
Prakhar Garg
prakhar@chiiz.com
Prakhar is always engrossed in his books
and his diary. He believes in the saying ‘It
Is What It Is.’ A wanderer by temperament,
he wants to walk out on his story when the
day comes.
The Dali Atomicus, as this photograph is called,
was captured by Philippe Halsman in 1948. The
photograph is Halsman’s homage both to the new
atomic age (prompted by physicist then-recent
announcement that all matter hangs in a constant state
of suspension) and to Dalí’s surrealist masterpiece
“Leda Atomica” (seen on the right, behind the cats, and
unfinished at the time).
Capturing the essence of those he photographed was
Philippe Halsman’s life’s work. So when Halsman set
out to shoot his friend and longtime collaborator the
Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, he knew a simple seated
portrait would not suffice. Inspired by Dalí’s painting
Leda Atomica, Halsman created an elaborate scene
to surround the artist that included the original work,
a floating chair and an in-progress easel suspended
by thin wires. Assistants, including Halsman’s wife
and young daughter Irene, stood out of the frame and,
on the photographer’s count, threw three cats and a
bucket of water into the air while Dalí leaped up. It took
the assembled cast 28 takes to capture a composition
that satisfied Halsman. The final result, published in
LIFE, evokes Dalí’s own work. Dali not only played the
role of a protagonist in the photograph but he also
painted on it. Philippe cut it out and collage it in.
Philippe Halsman, The Legendary Photographer
But before settling on the “Atomicus” we know today,
Halsman rejected a number of other concepts for the
shot. One was the idea of throwing milk instead of water,
but that was abandoned for fear that viewers, fresh
from the privations of World War II, would condemn
it as a waste of milk. Another involved exploding a
duck in order to capture it “in suspension,” though that
arguably would have been a waste of ducks.
Halsman’s approach, to bring subjects such as Albert
Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Alfred Hitchcock into
sharp focus as they moved before the camera, redefined
portrait photography and inspired generations of
photographers to collaborate with their subjects.
As Halsman wrote in his book ‘Halsman on the
Creation of Photographic Ideas’, “Six hours and twentyeight
throws later, the result satisfied my striving for
perfection. (…) My assistants and I were wet, dirty, and
near complete exhaustion—only the cats still looked
like new”.
On the next page(Below), you can see a retouched
version of the photograph that was published in
LIFE magazine. And in the photo above it, the wires
suspending the easel and the painting, the hand of the
Philippe’s wife holding the chair and the prop holding
up the footstool can still be seen. The frame on the
easel is still empty.
Halsman’s methods were as unique as they were
effective. His portraits appeared on 101 LIFE magazine
covers(most by any person so far) including 7 of his
66 Vol.1