'lillian bassman/paul himmmel' @ Deichtorhallen Hamburg

"Lillian Bassman: Barbara Mullen", New York, ca. 1958. Reinterpreted 1994. Platinum print. ©Lillian Bassman

HAMBURG.- Deichtorhallen Hamburg presents the first comprehensive exhibition in Europe by Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel.

Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel count among the masters of photography. The House of Photography of Deichtorhallen Hamburg prepares the first comprehensive retrospective of the artist couple. Besides the well-known photographs, published in “Vogue” and “Harper’s Bazaar”, yet unpublished photographs of the two artists will be exposed.

Today Lillian Bassman belongs to the last great woman photographers in the fashion world. In the 1940s and 1960s she worked as an art director for “Junior Bazaar” and later for “Harper’s Bazaar”, and promoted photographers, such as Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Louis Faurer and Arnold Newman.

Paul Himmel (born 1914 as son of Ukrainian pilgrims; died in Feb. 2009 in New York) was one of the last great living photographers from the early era of American photography. He gained fame through his early exhibition “The Familiy of Man”, curated by Edward Steichen, which then turned around the world. In the mid-thirties, Lillian Bassman and Paul Himmel got married. Contrary to his wife, Paul Himmel increasingly lost interest in fashion photography. He began to develop his own projects, most of them radical experiments.

Paul Himmel, "Falling Snow - Boy in Window", New York, 1952. Silbergelatine, 24.8 x 31.6 cm. ©Paul Himmel.

Lillian Bassman: Born to Dance, Margie Cato, Kleid von Emily Wilkins, New York, 1950. Neu interpretiert 1994. Silbergelatine, 35,6 x 27,7 cm. © Lillian Bassman

Paul Himmel: Family Self-Portrait, undatiert. Silbergelatine, 26,8 x 34,4 cm © Paul Himmel

Lillian Bassman: Touch of Dew, Lisa Fonssagrives, New York, 1961. Silbergelatine, 23,1 x 34,6 cm © Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman und Paul Himmel vor ihrem Haus in New York, 2003 © Karin Kohlberg, 2003

Lillian Bassman: Pineapple Head, Barbara Mullen, Paris, 1949. Neu interpretiert 2008. Silbergelatine, 26 x 27,3 cm © Lillian Bassman