Lillian Bassman leveraged the seismic cultural shifts of postwar America in her ingenious blend of illustration and photography. Marrying form and motion, she utilized darkroom techniques like polarization along with inventive manipulations using materials such as bleach and smoke in her linear, ethereal images. Bassman was a giant in the fashion photography world for good reason, bringing art and commerce together in novel ways. Her solo show “Bazaar and Beyond” at
@metmuseum in NYC is an engrossing, enlightening treat.
