1954. Halsman & Marilyn Monroe (Estate of Philippe Halsman/ Laurence Miller Gallery)Portrait photographer Philippe Halsman had a knack for making people jump. Whether through hoops, on trampolines or simply straight up in the air, Halsman coaxed many very famous people airborne and, in the split second of their flight, exquisitely captured a part of each of them that no one had ever seen before. Among the rich, powerful and famous to jump for Halsman were Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Helpburn, Salavadore Dali, Richard Nixon, Ed Sullivan and many, many others. Why ask people to jump? Halsman said “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.”
A 5/23/2010 New York Times article by Roberta Smith titled The Joys of Jumpology tells more about Halsman and his "jump" photos. In her article, Smith offers a preview to an exhibition of nearly 50 exhuberant jumps that Halsman captured on film from the late 1940s through the late 1950s. The exhibition is at Manhattan's Laurence Miller Gallery through Friday 5/28/2010. As Smith summarizes in her article, the photographs on exhibit feature stars of stage, screen and television; national leaders; a prima ballerina; writers; and other creative types. You can see exhibition images online here.