Lillian Bassman: Lingerie

As soon as she became a fashion photographer in the late 1940s, Lillian Bassman began to make images of women in intimate settings and quickly established herself as a specialist in lingerie – women’s underwear and nightclothes. As viewers have since observed, this body of work rises above its commercial roots to portray a private realm where women appear to be effortlessly self-possessed. Speaking of Bassman’s lingerie work in the New York Times, Ginia Bellafante pointed out that the photographs seemed like “visual entries in the personal journals of the women photographed.” Lillian Bassman passed away in February (2012). Illus., 80 black-and-white photographs. 128p.