President Nixon & Jumpology Essay

One of the other novel contributions was the series of jump pictures where his clients, including the likes of President Nixon, Marilyn Monroe, Duke and Duchess of Winsor jumped for him. Halsman always believed that the jumps revealed more realistically the latent idiosyncrasies of the personality of his clients. (Merryman, 2002) The ideation of this particular pictorial genre had, of course, its offshoot in Halsman’s photography of the animated antics of many of the noted comedians like Sid Caesar, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx who were captured in his film. Halsman could readily realize that, contrasted with their more traditional portraits, the characters came out in full life and vigor when they jumped. To quote Halsman â€Å"When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears. † (Halsman, 1986) Incidentally his published book [1959] titled â€Å"Philippe Halsman Jump book† is replete with 178 photographs of numerous â€Å"celebrities jumpers†, interwoven with hilarious discussion on jumpology. (Halsman, 1986) [linnilabelled. wordpress. com/2007/10/06/philippe-halsman-the-father-of-jumpology/] [http://astadnik. file. wordpress. com/2008/04/bb2. jpg] Halsman’s jumpology created a genre in photography which moved and inspired a lot of people, professional and otherwise. Philippe Halsman – Fritz Gruber (Writer) and the Crew Jumping on Set profile. myspace. com/index. cfm? fuseaction=user†¦ In 1958, to recognise his contribution Halsman was included in Popular Photography’s â€Å"World’s Ten Greatest Photographers† along with Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ernst Haas, Yousuf Karsh, Gjon Mili, and Eugene Smith. American Society of Magazine Photographers gave him the Life Achievement in Photography Award in 1975. Halsman believed that his career matured and his art came to fruition in his adopted country, America. He thus made America, the subject of his works in myriad ways. One review noted Halsman’s â€Å"unsanctimonious and immensely intense portrayal of American bounce. † When we look back in time at the works and contribution of Philippe Halsman, we see the discovery or even invention of a nation as seen by an artist through the lens of his camera which took into account not only imagination but also the psychology of the country and its people. His images form a vivid portrayal of prosperous American of the mid 20th century. In that respect his adopted country became his creation.