In this exhibition of flower and fashion photography, Lillian Bassman's newly created flower photographs are shown along side fashion work which is being exhibited for the first time. Bassman's flowers have the same sensibility of form and line as her unique fashion images. In color and black and white, these large, highly nuanced and sensitive flower images can be both vivid and abstract and are juxtaposed with fashion images from the late 1940's to the 1990's. The flower and fashion images echo the spirit and style of each other and together form a dramatic new statement from a very original artist.
Lillian Bassman's career as a photographer began at Harpers's Bazaar working for the great art director Alexey Brodovitch. In the early 1990's Bassman manipulated these early images in the darkroom and transformed them through bleaching and blurring techniques into original works of art, investing them with poetry, mystery and glamour. The transformed photographs display extreme delicacy of gesture and quintessential femininity, creating an aura of romance and charm.
Lillian Bassman was born in 1917 into an immigrant family of free-thinking intellectuals, and was brought up with a mind set that allowed her to live as an independent and unconventional woman. While in school, she worked as an artist's model in exchange for studio space. She worked as a textile designer and fashion illustrator before joining Harper's Bazaar. She married Paul Himmel in 1935, and they have two children. In recent years she has had innumerable awards, exhibitions and honors, and has continued to be an active and creative force.