--- description: Few portrait photographers could claim to be as prolific as Philippe Halsman. Now a new exhibition and book are set to shed more light on his creative process while revealing rarely seen Halsman photos. title: Surprising Photos by Philippe Halsman image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6e49b87c55af836/6987e586cd68482fe009ceb6/mel_halsman_dali-avec-rhinoceros-1956-c-2013-philippe-halsman-archive-magnum-photos_images-rights-of-salvador-dali-reserved1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Philippe Halsman: Surprising, Playful Portraits by a Master by [Richard Conway](/author/richard-conway/) ## Richard Conway Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 5, 2014 9:00 AM CUT  Salvador Dalí performing for the Morning Show on CBS-TV, 1956 Salvador Dalí performing for the Morning Show on CBS-TV, 1956Philippe Halsman Archive by [Richard Conway](/author/richard-conway/) ## Richard Conway Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 5, 2014 9:00 AM CUT Few portrait photographers could claim to be as prolific, or as well-regarded, as Philippe Halsman. One of the premier photographers of the 20th Century, by any measure, the Latvian native shot a whopping 101 covers for LIFE magazine and regularly shot for TIME. He counted Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau and other notable artists and cultural figures among his friends, and produced consistently strong work throughout his career. Most widely known, perhaps, for his shot _Dali Atomicus_ (which shows the Spanish surrealist floating alongside cats, chairs and blobs of water), Halsman seemed to take his work so seriously that he could afford to let it be playful, exuberant and downright fun. In fact, this signature levity emerged from strict, self-imposed rules that could be capsulized in a simple dictum: “Make it simple, and make it interesting.” Now an exhibition and book, both called _Astonish Me!_, shed more light on the process involved in creating his work, while revealing rarely seen Halsman photos. Among some of the most surprising images are his shot of an apparently floating Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; a gobsmacked-looking Muhammad Ali; and Winston Churchill, evidently lost in thought, shot from the back. Revealing, too, is a picture of a hardly recognizable Marilyn Monroe acting as if she is being scared by a monster, and Anjelica Huston poking her head out from a bed of flowers. And Halsman’s process? In short, he was as interested in psychology as he was in photography, and used it to help him produce high-quality work. He’d research his subjects’ interests, for example, and spend hours engaging with them on those topics. This artful melding of psychology and portraiture allowed his work to be frank, honest and playful. “He wanted people to forget the camera,” Irene Halsman, his daughter, tells TIME. “He was genuinely interested in them. He really wanted to portray their essence.” --- _Astonish Me! runs at the_ [**_Musée de l’Élysée_**](http://www.elysee.ch/en/exhibitions/detail/article/philippe-halsman-astonish-me/ "undefined") _in Lausanne, Switzerland from January 29 to May 11, 2014\._ **_Richard Conway_** _is Reporter/Producer for TIME LightBox. Follow him on twitter_ [_@RichardJConway_](https://twitter.com/RichardJConway "undefined") ---  Salvador Dalí performing for the Morning Show on CBS-TV, 1956 Philippe Halsman Archive  The Versatile Jean Cocteau, 1949\. This photo ran in LIFE. This is an image showing Halsman's mounted final print. Philippe Halsman Archive  Midsummer’s Night Mare, 1949\. This image shows a final print retouched with gouache by Salvador Dali. Philippe Halsman Archive  Martha Graham in Letter to the World, 1946 Philippe Halsman Archive  Pages of the mock-ups for Halsman's book "Dalí’s Mustache," 1953-54. Philippe Halsman Archive  Anjelica Huston, 1968. Philippe Halsman Archive  Micheline Levy, 1938. Philippe Halsman Archive  Paulette Goddard, 1949. Philippe Halsman Archive  Muhammad Ali, 1963. Philippe Halsman Archive  Marilyn Monroe acting out the part of someone being confronted by a monster, 1949. Philippe Halsman Archive  Marilyn Monroe carrying dumb-bells, 1952. Philippe Halsman Archive  Andy Warhol, 1968. Philippe Halsman Archive  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1968. Philippe Halsman Archive  Winston Churchill, 1951. Philippe Halsman Archive ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3806779/surprising-playful-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3806779/surprising-playful-photos/"},"headline":"Philippe Halsman: Surprising, Playful Portraits by a Master","datePublished":"2014-02-05T09:00:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:32.881Z","description":"Few portrait photographers could claim to be as prolific as Philippe Halsman. 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