"The Yellow Smock Coat" and "Yellow Linen Etched in Black" in Harper's Bazaar

When Bassman submitted these photographs to Harper’s Bazaar, they came back with a warning: “This is dangerous,” art director Alexey Brodovitch inscribed on a print. Coming from her irascible mentor, these words had the ring of admiration. Other colleagues were less impressed. One dismissed the works as “sheer madness,” perhaps because they more closely resemble illustrations than anything made with a camera. Bassman achieved this graphic effect in the darkroom by selectively exposing areas of the paper to light. Using a cardboard mask cut through with a pinhole, she traced the contours of the image. The results show silhouettes of the garments, but leave much else to the imagination.