MELVIN SOKOLSKY (born 1933)
Melvin Sokolsky was born and raised in New York City. At the age of twenty-one, he was invited to join the staff of Harper's Bazaar. Within the next few years he worked as a major contributor to four prestigious magazines: Esquire, McCall's, Newsweek, and Show.
In 1962, Sokolsky photographed the entire editorial content of McCall's magazine - a first in its time. The same year, he took inspiration from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and photographed the model Simone D’Aillencourt wearing couture while floating above the bemused residents of Paris in a clear plastic bubble. The resulting photographs were a sensation in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar and remain some of the most influential fashion images of all time.
In 1969, Sokolsky embarked on a new career in television commercials as a director/cameraman. Sokolsky has been honored with twenty-five Clio Awards, and is the recipient of every major television commercial award including the coveted "Director's Guild" nomination. Many of Sokolsky's commercials are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
In 1972, Sokolsky, now versed in all phases of special effects and cinematography, presented a computerized zoom lens that he had designed to the Academy of Arts and Sciences that was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award.
In 1986, the Victoria and Albert Museum included Sokolsky’s photographs in their exhibition "Shots of Style: A Retrospective of the World's Major Fashion Photographers". More recently, Sokolsky’s work was included in the exhibition “Icons of Style: A Century of Fashion Photography, 1911-2011” at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 2018. In conjunction with each exhibition, both institutions also acquired Sokolsky photographs for their permanent collections.
Sokolsky published several books of his work which include Seeing Fashion (2000), Archive (2009), and Paris 1963/1965 (2011).