WOMEN: Through the Lens of Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman is 92 years of age. She still shoots almost five times a day. She doesn’t use a digital camera, being loyal to her Has­selblad. At times, she takes her old images and re-visits them. As she can no longer stand up for long hours in the darkroom, she has learned how to use the computer and alters her photographs using the new medium.

Once an Art Director at Junior Bazaar and later at Harper’s Bazaar, she promoted the work and careers of many photographers like Richard Avedon and Louis Faurer. As she committed to her own sensibility of taking fashion photographs, she marked its history with her unique vision of capturing women. In her frames from the late 1940s to early 1960s, the female figure seduces in black and white as light flirts with shadow.

Her sensual and graceful photographs of women are currently on view at the Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica’s Berg­amot Station. The exhibit includes more than 50 images, many of them not seen since publication.

Venice caught up with Bassman at her Upper East Side apartment in New York. Fighting off a cold, she nevertheless comes across as irresistibly invincible. 

Venice: What is it about women that fascinated you?

Lillian Bassman: Being a woman myself I gravitated to their world. I felt like they need­ed to have a voice. I loved the fact that they felt relaxed being photographed by me — some were married, some had boyfriends, some were young girls — I was another woman, they didn’t have to flirt with me or pretend to be someone they were not. They trusted me, and I trusted them.

What was it about fashion that intrigued you?

As a young woman I was drawn to cloth­ing. Every time I had to go to a ball or an evening out, I made my own dress. I loved fabric. I loved the intense feeling you get from making something beautiful. 

What does a beautiful woman look like in your eyes?

She has an awareness of her body, a long neck, slightly sloping shoulders. We all have our version of beauty. 

How did it all begin?

My husband was an amateur photograph­er; he would print and I would wash his neg­atives. I got used to the camera by being around him. It developed from there. I would ask friends to pose for me and started tak­ing on photography seriously.

How did you find your own style?

When I was at Harper’s Bazaar, there was a studio in the building, during my lunch hour I used to go there and experiment with softening images, using other people’s negatives, I don’t think they ever knew that. [laughs] It was my way of teaching myself photography. As time went on, when I was not doing commercial work, I would take my negatives into the darkroom and alter them with bleach and paint and brush strokes and tissues. What I created in the darkroom made the difference; I could take an ordinary photograph of mine, go in and experiment and transform it into something else.

Was there anyone or any specific art form that you considered a source of inspiration in creating your images?

No one really influenced my work. If any­thing, I think I was inspired mostly by paint­ing; very rarely did I look at other photogra­phers’ work. Our major activity with my hus­band was to go to the Metropolitan Museum every Saturday. I loved looking at the works of El Greco and Klee; I emerged myself in their expressionism—that was my education.

Where is the best environment for an artist to be in order to create — in the classroom or in the studio?

I tried to teach, unsuccessfully. I never found it very satisfactory. It’s about expos­ing yourself to all the elements of art and life in general. Keep in touch with yourself and with the world around you. By looking [at] and experiencing art, you will be able to express it in your own way. I don’t think you can pass on passion that is within you, you have to feel it. You have to be aware of music, literature, and respond to it in your own artistic way.

In 200 years how would you like to be remembered?

As a creative spirit.

In one word: How is Lillian Bassman?

Experimental! [laughs]

Interesting. Let’s elaborate on that…

I was always trying to find new ways to express myself. I’ve had my ups and downs, I had disappointments, and good surprises. I am 92 years old, and I cannot wait to get back to work everyday. Doing what you are passionate about keeps you young.

Your husband was a photographer for some time as well.

He was a terrible fashion photographer, he never should have tried it, but he made a tremendous amount of creative work. At the age of 50 he decided to become a psy­chotherapist and went back to school. No matter what he was doing, it always had an artistic touch.

How did you two meet?

I was six years old. My mother was a waitress in his family’s restaurant. He was nine years old. We didn’t get along very well then but we saw each other again when I was 15 and that was that, we were inseparable. 

You are a true New Yorker, which is such a rare find these days; it feels like most of the people who live in New York are from someplace else.

I was born and raised in the Bronx. My parents were sort of bohemians. My father was extremely hard working, and during the Depression he took care of everybody, of us and of relatives who were in need. The house was filled with friends and cousins who would come by. 

The landscape and lifestyle of New York has changed drasti­cally since those days.

The city has been changing and changing and changing. At this point, even though the streets may seem more beautiful, I am so sick of seeing those tall glass buildings that have neither warmth nor intimacy. I don’t like it at all. I was looking at a photograph of the New York skyline in the New York Times the other day and I thought to myself, “All the romance of the city has evaporated, it has disappeared, all the uniqueness is gone.” Now everything is plain, the same.

Share with us one more thing we ought to know about your photographic journey.

I started out with the RoloFlex, I used that until the Hasselblad came around. I liked using the Hasselblad. If I was in the studio it was much more convenient, depending on what I was shooting. I use the computer now to work on my images rather than the dark­room. You have to change with time, keep changing with tech­niques. Computers open new ways of experiencing art. Although I must say I used to love those days when I would go in the dark­room for long hours and let my imagination free. That to me was the most exciting part! ▼

“Lillian Bassman: Women” can be seen through March 2010 at Peter Fetterman Gallery, located at 2525 Michigan Avenue #A7 in Santa Monica. For more information, visit www.peterfetterman.com