Lillian Bassman's career began at Harper's Bazaar working with the great art director Alexey Brodovitch (1950's). 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. 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 in an atmosphere that allowed her to live as an independent and unconventional woman. While in school, she worked as an artist's model in exchnage for studio space. She worked as a textile designer and fashion illustrator before joining Harper's Bazaar. In recent years she has had innumberable awards, exhibitions and honors, and has continued to be an active and creative force.
