The work of Melvin Sokolsky is seen in this exhibition of black and white and color photographs. His career as a fashion photographer was short, lasting only for the decade of the 1960s, but his work was pioneering and original, marking the transition from the staid and predictable fashion photograph of the late 1950s to inventive and experimental work which characterized the photographs of the 1960s.
Self taught and only twenty-one years old, Sokolsky joined the staff of Harper’s Bazaar in 1959. From the beginning he was a source of fresh, new ideas. Fascinated by surrealism, he played with scale and proportion. With great technical ingenuity he was able to translate his fantasies of flight into memorable images of flying mannequins in the latest Diors and elegant couture clad women suspended in bubbles flying over Paris. Throughout his career he expanded the margins with his non-stop imagination. His influence is still felt on the magazine pages.
Sokolsky was a major contributor to McCalls, Esquire, Newsweek and Show Magazine. In the 1970s he turned to film and became a highly successful director of television commercials. His work is widely collected and has appeared in museums throughout the world. His book, Seeing Fashion, was published in 2000.