Lillian Bassman (June 15 1917 in Brooklyn) is an American painter and photographer.

Life

Her parents were Jewish intellectuals who emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1905 and settled in Brooklyn, New York. She studied at the Textile High School in Manhattan and graduated in 1933. While there, she met the photographer Paul Himmel and they married in 1935.

From the 1940s until the 1960s, Bassman worked as a fashion photographer for Junior Bazaar and later at Harper's Bazaar, where she promoted the careers of photographers such as Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, Louis Faurer and Arnold Newman. Under the guidance of the Russian emigrant Alexey Brodovitch, she began to photograph her model subjects primarily in black and white. Her work was published for the most part in Harper's Bazaar, between 1950-1965.

By the 1970s, Bassman's interest in pure form in her fashion photography was out of vogue. She turned to her own photo projects and abandoned fashion photography. In doing so, she tossed out 40 years of negatives and prints - her life's work. Over 20 years later, a forgotten bag filled with hundreds of images was discovered. Bassman’s fashion photographic work began to be re-appreciated in the 1990s.

In her 90s, she is now working with digital technology and abstract color photography to create a new series of work.

The most notable qualities about her photographic work are the high contrasts between light and dark, the graininess of the finished photos and the geometric placement and camera angles of the subjects. Bassman is now one of the last great woman photographers in the world of fashion.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1974: Stämpfli Gallery, New York

• 1993: Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

• 1993: "Vanité", Palais de Tokyo

• 1994: Jackson Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

• 1994: "Homage to Lillian Bassman," Caroussel du Louvre, Paris

• 1997: Fashion Institute of Technology, New York

• 1997: Peter Fetterman Gallery, Los Angeles

• 2002: Garden Prado, Madrid

• 2003: Galerie f5, 6 in Munich, Germany

• 2004: Staley Wise Gallery, New York

• 2005: Farmani Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

• 2005: A touch of mystery - Triennale der Photographie Hamburg 2005, Photography Monika Mohr Galerie, Hamburg

• 2006: Selektion # 1 - Arbeiten in Schwarz/Weiß, Galerie f 5,6, München

• 2006: Retrospective, Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica, USA