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Famed Photographer and Art Director, Lillian Bassman, Dies at 94

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A photo from a fashion spread that appeared in a Harper’s Bazaar issue in 1950. Lillian Bassman, the photographer, died Monday at 94.A renowned figure in the art world passed away on Monday at the robust age of 94. Lillian Bassman, who was best known for her successes as art director of Harper’s Bazaar in the 1940s, died of natural causes at her home in New York City, her son Eric Himmel confirmed.

Bassman was born in Brooklyn on June 15, 1918, and set her sights on the artistic realm at an early age. The daughter of Jewish immigrants, she married at the age of fifteen and spent a number of years scaling to heights in fashion and photography. She studied graphic design in high school and fashion illustration at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and attracted the attention of Alexey Brodovitch, the art director of Harper’s Bazaar who would serve as Bassman’s mentor and aid throughout her career at the magazine.

In particular, Bassman was noted for her revolutionary artistic approach, with her photography growing trendy as she added an air of “lightness and glamour to an arena previously known for heavy, middle-aged women posing in industrial-strength corsets,” according to the New York Times. Originally an art director and graphic designer, her intimate contact with photographers and models propelled her to explore the genre herself. Her photography transcended the advertisements and models she often worked for, and mounting disillusionment with her career prompted her to destroy many of her commercial negatives in 1969, whereupon she essentially departed from the field until the 1990s, when a bag of her negatives reappeared and contributed to her resurgence on the artistic scene.

The rediscovery was prompted by a visit by historian and curator Martin Harrison, who urged Bassman to reassess the negatives she had discarded several decades prior. Bassman reviewed the stash and “reinterpreted” a number of the photos in a more abstract light, and her revival reintroduced her to the industry that would sustain her until her death. “Everybody’s fascinated with the idea of someone who is productive at my age. But I don’t know where or how or who I would be if I weren’t working. Plus, I’m convinced I’m really 25,” she would tell one media source.
Bassman is survived by her son, Eric Himmel, and daughter, Lizzie Himmel.

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