Dali Photography

Dali Atomicus, 1948

Salvador Dali!
Like everyone else I love his surrealistic paintings, but his lesser known photos are definitely quite as cool.
In the 1940's Dali teamed up with Philippe Halsman. They became partners on many projects, including a series of playful tableaux that had all the disturbing irrationality of dreams or a painting by Dali. Some became iconic, like the first two pictures in this blog. I think it is nice that everything you see on these photographs was also happening in real life, adjustments after taking the picture were not possible and not needed. At a time in which the most high-tech photo-camera's and photoshop are used, it is hard to imagine how much effort this would have taken.

Dali Skull, 1951

"Midsummer Night's Mare" 1950

The photograph above was discribed in a Fall 1950 issue of Photography Workshop:

"Still bent on suspending objects, Halsman and his willing accomplice, Dali, produced the explosion picture on page 39. The photograph was built around the fantasy of Dali's shoe exploding with the image of a beautiful woman appearing amid a holocaust of popcorn and French bread."

Dali also worked together with other famous photographers of that period, among them Man Ray and Brassaï. Man Ray is actually known as "The Dali of photography'. His photographs have been more influential than Dali's, although not as famous and well know among the mainstream public.

Salvador Dali and Man Ray Photograhped by Carl van Vechten

Le Violon d’Ingres by Man Ray