Vocabulary of Courage

Bassman’s first contributions to Harper’s Bazaar recombined existing photographs into montages, often with a topical theme. In the mid-1940s, as fighting raged abroad, the magazine published PSAs and patriotic editorials. To suggest the psychological tolls of wartime, Bassman tore into a beauty portrait by Rouben Samberg, collaging it with combat scenes. Her maquette takes inspiration from Constructivist photomontages of the 1920s, even as it evokes the anxieties of her present. "For now there are two sides to every woman’s face," an accompanying essay observed, contrasting the experience of ordinary life with awareness of concurrent horrors overseas. The Bazaar was likewise split in those years; flip this page, and you would soon find mascara tips and skincare cures.