Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman was an influential American fashion photographer, widely recognized for her contributions to Harper’s Bazaar magazine. Known for her striking high-contrast black-and-white photographs, Bassman captured the elegance of society women, actresses, and models from the 1950s and 1960s, with her muse being the renowned model Barbara Mullen. Born on June 15, 1917, in Brooklyn, NY, Bassman studied at Textiles High School in Manhattan, where she met photographer Alexey Brodovitch. She later attended night classes at Pratt Institute, focusing on fashion illustration. In the 1940s, she began working for Harper’s Bazaar, where she also served as photo editor, helping to elevate the careers of notable photographers like Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, and her husband, Paul Himmel. By the 1970s, as her style fell out of favor in the fashion world, she shifted away from commercial photography but continued to pursue her art. Her works are now housed in collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Bassman passed away on February 13, 2012, in New York.