--- title: 100 Photographs: Dali Atomicus | TIME description: In a world before Photoshop, it took the ingenuity of Salvador Dali and photographer Philippe Halsman—plus some deft cat-throwing—to produce this gravity-defying scene canonical: https://time.com/video/c7yPeZ12/ og:title: 100 Photographs: Dali Atomicus og:description: In a world before Photoshop, it took the ingenuity of Salvador Dali and photographer Philippe Halsman—plus some deft cat-throwing—to produce this gravity-defying scene og:url: https://time.com/video/c7yPeZ12/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/c7yPeZ12/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 100 Photographs: Dali Atomicus twitter:description: In a world before Photoshop, it took the ingenuity of Salvador Dali and photographer Philippe Halsman—plus some deft cat-throwing—to produce this gravity-defying scene twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/c7yPeZ12/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 100 Photographs: Dali Atomicus > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 100 Photographs: Dali Atomicus [Watch (HLS stream): 100 Photographs: Dali Atomicus](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c7yPeZ12.m3u8) (5:16)  _Published 2016-08-12. In a world before Photoshop, it took the ingenuity of Salvador Dali and photographer Philippe Halsman—plus some deft cat-throwing—to produce this gravity-defying scene_ --- Jul 27, 2023 8:31 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Salvador Dali's Coffin Was Opened for DNA Paternity Testing ](/video/Vc6e64GA/) ### Salvador Dali's Coffin Was Opened for DNA Paternity Testing [100 Photographs: Tragedy in Iraq](/video/EnQVPE0R/) ### 100 Photographs: Tragedy in Iraq [Photographer Martin Schoeller's TIME 100 Journey](/video/OTVrRxcV/) ### Photographer Martin Schoeller's TIME 100 Journey --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] There was no real competition. [ MUSIC ] Dali was a painter, an artist, and my father was a photographer. [ MUSIC ] Dali never really wanted to photograph, Philippe never really wanted to pick up a paintbrush. But together they collaborated and made the most outrageous pictures. [ MUSIC ] Dali had a special connection with Phillip. [ MUSIC ] They wanted to forge something new together. Dali was always full of wild ideas. So Felipe had to really use his imagination and creativity. Felipe would direct Dali. And Dali was very glad to oblige. It was a true true collaboration. That lasted 37 years. Mr. Houseman. Yes. Could we see one of your portrait sittings? You know, it's strange how a simple question can sometimes lead to a most complicated answer. First, I have to find out the purpose of the picture to know what facet of your personality I have to photograph. A true photographer wants to try to capture the real essence of a human being. He photographed everybody. [ MUSIC ] Philippe did 101 Life covers, more than any other photographer. [ MUSIC ] Dali loved attention. He always came in the studio, in a beautiful, blue, pin stripe suit. He was very dapper, and I thought he was very handsome. [ SOUND ] Dali had a show in a gallery in New York. And the most important painting was Litatomicas. Felipe studied it and said but why do you make here Litatomicas? Dali said well I am a man of the atomic era. And I should be a painter of the atomic era The word Atomicus is to have everything in suspension. So my father said I see, well I'd like to make Dali Atomicus. Let's think about what we can have suspended. Dali said I have an idea Lets take a duck and put some dynamite up his dairy aire and blow him up and my father said no you can't do that you're in america you might get arrested. And belli said okay we won't use a duck what should we use. They thought a while and they came up with three cats. And some water. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] My father took invisible wires and hung the easel, the little stool, and the picture of Dali Atomicus, and my mother held the chair. [ MUSIC ] Phillip would count to four. One, two, three, and the assistants through the cats in the water, and on four, Dali jumped. My job at the time was to catch the cats and take them to the bathroom and dry them off with a big towel. My father would run upstairs, where the dark room was, Develop the film, print it. Run downstairs, then he said, not good. Bad composition. This was wrong. That was wrong. It took 26 tries to do this. [ MUSIC ] 26 throws, 26 wiping of the floors, and 26 times catching the cats And then there it was, finally, this composition. [ MUSIC ] Not only did Dali act as the protagonist in the picture, he also painted the photograph. Phillipe cut it out, and it was collaged in. [ MUSIC ] The idea of having everything in suspension was so difficult because everything had to be done in one single shot. That was an incredible part of their collaboration. In 1948 there was no Photoshop, how are you gonna suspend things? And Philippe and Dali figured out a way. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"100 Photographs: Dali Atomicus","description":"In a world before Photoshop, it took the ingenuity of Salvador Dali and photographer Philippe Halsman—plus some deft cat-throwing—to produce this gravity-defying scene\n","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/c7yPeZ12/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-08-12T16:08:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c7yPeZ12.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/c7yPeZ12/","duration":"PT5M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/c7yPeZ12/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```