Amazing Fashion Photography by Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman (1917–2012) was a photographer, art director, and painter best known for her work in fashion photography.

Bassman wanted to be a dancer, but an injury to her heel crushed that hope. Instead, she attended a vocational high school and studied textile design. She graduated in 1933.

From the 1940s until the 1960s Bassman worked as a fashion photographer for Junior Bazaar and later at 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.

By the 1970s Bassman’s interest in pure form in her fashion photography was out of vogue. She turned to her own photo projects and abandoned fashion photography. In doing so she tossed out 40 years of negatives and prints – her life’s work. A forgotten bag filled with hundreds of images was discovered over 20 years later. Bassman’s fashion photographic work began to be re-appreciated in the 1990s.

The most notable qualities about her photographic work are the high contrasts between light and dark, the graininess of the finished photos, and the geometric placement and camera angles of the subjects. Bassman became one of the last great woman photographers in the world of fashion.

 

Lillian Bassman via

Lillian Bassman. Barbara Mullen (Blowing Kiss VARIANT), Harper’s Bazaar via

Lillian Bassman. More Fashion Mileage per Dress, Barbara Vaughn, New York via

Lillian Bassman. Southwest Passage – Sunset Pink: Model unknown, pajamas via

Lillian Bassman via

Lillian Bassman, wedding dress via

Lillian Bassman. Fantasy on the Dance Floor: Barbara Mullen in a Christian Dior Dress, Paris. Harper’s Bazaar, 1949 via

Lillian Bassman via

Amazing Vintage Photos of Fashion’s First Supermodel Lisa Fonssagrives

Swedish fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives (1911 – 1992) is widely credited as the world´s first supermodel. She was born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone and was  raised in Uddevalla.

She went to Mary Wigman’s school in Berlin and studied art and dance. After returning to Sweden, she opened a dance school.  She moved from Sweden to Paris to train for ballet and worked as a private dance teacher with Photographer Fernand Fonssagrives, which then led to a modeling career.

She married Fonssagrives in 1935; they divorced and she later married fashion photographer, Irving Penn, in 1950.

The Elton John photography collection auction held by Christie’s on October 15, 2004 sold a 1950 Irving Penn photograph of his wife, Lisa Fonssagrives, for $57,360.

VOGUE Cover, Lisa Fonssagrives by Horst P. Horst, 1940 via

Lisa Fonssagrives by Irving Penn, 1949

Lisa Fonssagrives by Lillian Bassman via

 

Lisa Fonssagrives by Irving Penn via

Lisa Fonssagrives, 1940’s via

Lisa Fonssagrives on the Eiffel Tower by Erwin Blumenfeld, Vogue, 1939 via

Lisa Fonssagrives Le Modele by Fernand Fonssagrives, 1942 via

Vintage Photos of Glamorous 1950s Model Suzy Parker

When modeling agent Eileen Ford met the model Dorian Leigh’s fifteen-year-old redhead sister, in 1948, she ‘almost fainted with delight’. Suzy Parker became a prominent model of her times who, with her high dimpled cheeks, short flame hair and dark blue eyes, captured the attention of the most famous photographers such as Richard Avedon who believed ‘she was something else – a redheaded force of nature, a wolf in chic clothing, the one flesh-and-blood woman in a world of exquisite creatures’ (source).

Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s. She appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines and in advertisements and starred in movie and television roles.

Suzy Parker in Harpers Bazaar, wearing a little feathery hat. Photograph by Richard Avedon via

 Suzy Parker for Mauboussin. Photograph by Henry Clarke, 1953 via

Suzy Parker 1955 in Lillian Bassman’s photograph The V‐Back Evenings. Lillian Bassman/Harper’s Bazaar via

Suzy Parker, Etole Leopard, Paris. Photograph by Georges Dambier, 1952 via

Suzy Parker wears Dior Haute Couture. American Vogue. Photograph by Horst P. Horst, 1952 via

A Collection of Photos featuring Women Wearing Masks

Lee Radziwill at the plaza hotel at Truman Capote´s black and white ball, New York, 1966 via

Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow at Truman Capote´s black and white ball via

Edwige Feuillère via

Baroness Jean de L’espee attending masked ball, Paris, July 1946, photographed by David E. Scherman for LIFE Magazine via

 Portrait by Brassai, Lilliput, March 1947 via

The Merry Widow by Lillian Basman via

Audrey Hepburn in How to Steel a mIllion via

 A young Twiggy wearing a mask and peeking through the curtains of the Paris shop Torrente, Vogue 1967 via