Defying Gravity

I came across this photo, a collaboration between the artists Philippe Halsman and Salvadore Dalí, in an article on Flavorwire, Go Ahead and Jump: Philippe Halsman’s Iconic Photos. The text on the first page would lead one to believe that this photo, like the others in the series, are merely the artist taking advantage of what a camera does best: capturing a split second of action, freezing an instant too brief to really be appreciated by the human eye in real time. That would be utterly incorrect, of course: the photo is actually a masterpiece of planning and, ultimately, retouching. To see how it was done, take a look at the unretouched image on Wikipedia.