WILLIAM HELBURN (1924 - 2020)
William Helburn was at the top of his profession from the early 1950s through the 1960s, with bylined covers and editorial images in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar, LIFE, McCall’s and many other magazines. Helburn also worked extensively in advertising, contributing memorable pictures to campaigns designed by such legendary art directors as Gene Federico, Robert Gage, Helmut Krone and George Lois.
Helburn’s first work in photography came at the close of World War II, when he was part of the team that processed the first pictures of the atom bomb exploding over Hiroshima. Inspired soon after by then‐partner Ted Croner’s encounter with model Lisa Fonssagrives posing naked on skis, Helburn entered the fashion world in 1947, shooting neophyte models like Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren while studying graphic design with legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch. 1949 brought both the start of Helburn’s career, with his first published images in Harper’s Bazaar and Charm, and the launch of Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), the agency that would spark advertising’s creative revolution. Helburn photographed and socialized with the world’s most beautiful women, including Dorian Leigh, Dovima, Suzy Parker, Jean Shrimpton, Barbara Mullen, Jean Patchett, Lauren Hutton and Sharon Tate. He paired his success and rich social life with frequent turns on the road racing circuit, driving Ferraris at Sebring, Watkins Glen, Havana and Nassau.
Helburn became a successful director of TV commercials in the early 1980s. Over a 30-year period, he won more than 45 professional awards including those from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the Advertising Club of New York, and the Clio Awards.
He left the industry a decade later to raise his children in Connecticut and died in 2020 at the age of 96. Since then, his work has been exhibited worldwide and is included in the permanent collection of The Getty Museum in Los Angeles.