until Sunday January 24 2016

Le Jeu de Paume
T : +33 (0)1 47 03 12 50
1, place de la Concorde
75008 Paris
France

In 1921, Philippe Halsman (Riga, Latvia 1906 - New York, 1979) found his father’s old camera and spoke of a “miracle” when he developed his first glass plates in the family’s bathroom sink. This exhibition, produced by the Musée de l’Elysée in collaboration with the Philippe Halsman Archive, showcases for the first time the American photographer’s entire career, from his beginnings in Paris in the 1930s to the tremendous success of his New York studio between 1940 and 1970.

This retrospective presents no less than 300 exclusive images and original documents, which shed new light on the work of an exceptional and atypical photographer. This exhibition includes numerous previously unseen elements of the photographer’s work: contact sheets, annotated contact prints, preliminary proofs, original photomontages and mock-ups.