Season Liberally

One of my favorite summer evening activities as a child was curling up on the cool hardwood floor in front of the "Art shelf" in the living room (two shelves up from the bottom on the right-hand side of the fireplace), and poring over volumes by artists such as Dali and Goya (kinda scary, that was) and Modigliani, as well as a beautiful handcolored, handprinted edition of Chaucer. But for sheer fun, I always reached for Philippe Halsman's Jump Book.

Halsman, a photographer more famous for his work for Life magazine, asked all sorts of celebrities to pose for him in mid-air, jumping. The resulting portraits might tell us more about the subjects than any more formal sittings would. Halsman studied what each celebrity's jump revealed about their personalities, whether introvert or extrovert or something in-between, and then dubbed this study "Jumpology." Originally published in 1959, the Jump Book features some of the most intriguing and fascinating names of the time: Richard Nixon (arms down, toes pointed, with a closed-mouth grin); Adlai E. Stevenson (arms up, feet flat, huge toothy smile); Grace Kelly (shoes off, skirt hoiked up, gorgeous smile); John Steinbeck (head back and stiff, toes pointed, right finger pointing at shoes); Walter Gropius (feet apart, arms flailing, and a facial expression that seems to say "I hope you're happy you've trashed my dignity to shreds"). Actors, singers, artists, politicians, writers, captains of industry, comedians, scientists, and royalty all jumped for Halsman, and most seem to have enjoyed the experience.

There are some fairly famous studies in here, too: three photographs of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor that are quite touching, my favorite portrait of Audrey Hepburn, who, when jumping, looks like a pixie in flight, and possibly the most famous of all, "Dali Atomicus" (see photo upper right). Dali made Halsman take shot after shot of flying cats and splashing water until he was satisfied with the result (and I remember as a kid thinking "those poor cats!!!").

Over time our original copy of the Jump Book got lost, but thankfully Harry Abrams published a reissue in paperback in 1986 that is still in print and can be found at your local bookstore or ordered online. The book is a treasure, and you won't regret giving it a look.