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Contact Sheet for "It’s a Cinch"

1951
Not on view
Testing out poses, Carmen Dell’Orefice enacts a lingerie ballet across this contact sheet. Bassman encouraged models to dance before the camera, prizing their unchoreographed gestures and elegant lines. At bottom right, a punch hole denotes a favorite frame, for which Bassman made a test print (2025.889.25). Ultimately selecting a different image from this sheet for Harper’s Bazaar, she diffused it in the darkroom, then cropped it to meet the magazine’s strict code of decorum.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Contact Sheet for "It’s a Cinch"
  • Artist: Lillian Bassman (American, Brooklyn, New York 1917–2012 New York)
  • Date: 1951
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of Lizzie and Eric Himmel, 2025
  • Object Number: 2025.889.26
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Lillian Bassman
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

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Vocabulary of Courage, Lillian Bassman, Gelatin silver print
Vocabulary of Courage
Lillian Bassman
Rouben Samberg
1944
The Ring Toss, Clarence H. White American, Gum bichromate print
The Ring Toss
Clarence H. White
1899
[Harper's Bazaar Cover Maquette], Lillian Bassman, Gelatin silver print with collaged elements and applied media
[Harper's Bazaar Cover Maquette]
Lillian Bassman
1949
Doylestown House—Stairs from Below, Charles Sheeler American, Gelatin silver print
Doylestown House—Stairs from Below
Charles Sheeler
1917
Variant of The Cape Back is Back, Lillian Bassman, Gelatin silver print
Variant of The Cape Back is Back
Lillian Bassman
1949

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