
December 31, 2009
Shock Value

Jean Shrimpton with Radish, 1964
A son finds thirty-one trash bags in the basement of his father’s studio. Inside are photographs from the halcyon days of advertising in 1960s New York, a treasure trove of glamour: Jean Patchett, Sharon Tate, Dovima, Jean Shrimpton.

Joanna McCormick, 1951
These are photographs produced to endow products (hair conditioners, perfume, clothing) with the allure of martini-and-cigarette sophistication, photographs that exquisitely balance on the edge between Madison Avenue and Seventh Avenue, sex and commerce. They are the photographs of William Helburn, whose work has all but been forgotten.

“The Skirt’s the Thing,” Dovima and Jean Patchett, Madison Square, Harper’s Bazaar, 1958
Helburn was a contemporary of Richard Avedon and Irving Penn and he was, like them, mentored at the long table in Avedon’s studio by Alexy Brodovitch, the legendary art director for Harper’s Bazaar. But Helburn worked directly for the advertising agencies, such as Doyle Dane Burnbach, and spurned photo credits. “I was fairly invisible to the world. I was not invisible to the publications.”
Dovima Under the El, “Dior Creates Cosmopolitan Drama,” 1956. For Douglas SimonÂ
Helburn’s work did grab you by the throat, but in an elegant way. One of his most effective visual tricks was to take his subjects out of the studio and into the streets.Â
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Times Square, Town & Country, ca. 1960Â
“A Beginner’s Guide to Mao Tse-Tung,” Sharon Tate, Esquire, 1967Â
By comparison, Don Draper is a schlump.
Josyane LeRoy with William Helburn, c. 1961
All images © 2014 William Helburn
Thanks to William Helburn and Thames & Hudson
William Helburn: Seventh and Madison, Mid-Century Fashion and Advertising Photography is published by Thames & Hudson
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