[Contact Sheet of Lillian Bassman at Work]

From behind her camera, Bassman humors, instructs, cajoles, and commands. She is cheerful and strict by turns. She is also pregnant. The subject of these exhortations is her doctor’s wife, sitting for a portrait in the studio Bassman shared with her husband, Paul Himmel. Himmel’s contact sheet slyly documents the session, showing her total absorption in the work. Photography, for Bassman, was a full-body affair for those on either side of the camera. She often urged her fashion models to gesticulate with feeling, to find the drama inherent in a skirt or a sleeve. The goal, she said, was to make them dance, and here she leads by example.