Audrey Hepburn, 1955

Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) born in Riga, Latvia and began to take photographs in Paris in the 1930s. He opened a portrait studio in Montparnasse in 1934, where he photographed André Gide, Marc Chagall, André Malraux, Le Corbusier, and other writers and artists.

He arrived in the United States in 1940, just after the fall of France, having obtained an emergency visa through the intervention of Albert Einstein. His work soon won international recognition, and in 1951, he was invited by the founders of Magnum Photos to join the organisation as a “contributing member”. Halsman began a 37-year collaboration with Salvador Dalí in 1941 which resulted in a stream of unusual “photographs of ideas,” including “Dalí Atomicus”. 

In the course of his prolific career in America, Halsman produced reportage and covers for most major American magazines, including a staggering 101 covers for Life magazine. His assignments brought him face-to-face with many of the century’s leading personalities.