LIFE photographer Philippe Halsman poised w. camera in serious portrait. (Photo by Yale Joel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

He may never have been on LIFE’S staff, but Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) will always be considered one of the magazine’s most important photographers. That would be true even if one based the assessment only on cover shots. Halsman’s 101 outpaces any competition. Indeed, after shooting No. 100 (Johnny Carson), the Latvian-born lensman said, “This is the high point of my career. It has taken me 27 years to achieve this record, and I like to think of It as the equal of, maybe the superior of, Babe Ruth’s.” One of the premier portraitists of the century (three of his images appeared on postage stamps), he produced work that traveled comfortably from zany to disarming to exquisite. How did he manage to deal with such a range of celebrities? “As a photographer, you try to use the tools of the trade. If it is a painter you are photographing, you use a brush or an easel for a prop. For a sculptor, a chisel. For Mae West, you use a big bed.”

LIFE magazine cover published March 7, 1952, featuring Marilyn Monroe. (Photo by Philippe Halsman/The LIFE Images Collection)

“Of the beautiful women I have photographed, I recall Marilyn Monroe most vividly,” said Halsman. “Her great talent was an ability to convey her ‘availability.’ I remember there were three men in the room … Each of us had the thought that if the others would only leave the room that something would happen between Marilyn and himself.” To get the cover photo at right, Halsman needed her to jump 200 times. Before she left she told him to call if another take was necessary-“even if it is four in the morning.” 

—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

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Multiple exposure photograph of LIFE photographer Marie Hansen handling a camera, running & crouching as she would do on assignment. (Photo by Gjon Mili/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

LIFE’S third female staff photographer, Marie Hansen (c. 1918-1969) covered the White House, politics and Hollywood. MGM producer Joe Pasternak was so taken with her that he wanted to make a movie based on her ‘exotic’ identity: the woman photojournalist. Pasternak persuaded Hansen to take a screen test in which she smooched with film star Walter Pidgeon. However, she turned down a movie studio contract because she felt more comfortable on the other side of the lens.

—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

Congressmen posing on the front steps of the Capitol Building. (Photo by Marie Hansen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Children playing on the beach, 1946. (Photo by Marie Hansen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Huge crowd gathered in the surf and amp; at the beach in front of Coney Island Amusement Park. (Photo by Marie Hansen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

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Photographer Rex Hardy Jr lines up a shot with his tripod -mounted camera, December 1937. (Photo by Alexander King/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

“When I got out of Stanford,” said Rex Hardy (1915-2004), “I wanted some adventure. I had run across Peter Stackpole, and I wanted to be like him. A chap I had gone to school with was going to open an office for LIFE, the new magazine, and hired me to cover Hollywood at $30 a week.” And that was that. In 1936, Hardy became the magazine’s first photographer to have Tinseltown as his beat, and he recorded portraits of Harpo Marx, Astaire and Rogers, and others. He departed LIFE in 1939, partly owing to disagreements with Picture Editor Wilson Hicks—but there was more to it: Hardy tried freelancing for a while, but it just didn’t work out. Finally, he said candidly, “the Navy came along, and that was the end of it for me. I lacked the talent that the rest of these people had, as well as the temperament… I guess I lacked the ego of the performer.” He did, however, have the courage to become an important test pilot.

—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

An unidentified woman looks at the tag on one of many paintings in a storage room in the home of financier and art collector Chester Dale, New York, New York, 1938. (Photo by Rex Hardy/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

American Nazi party members, (aka German American Bund) march while carrying Nazi and American flags during a Bund outing from nearby Camp Sigfried. (Photo by Rex Hardy/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Bing Crosby gazing at duck walking by horse stable. (Photo by Rex Hardy/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

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LIFE photographer Bernard Hoffman. (Photo by Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Carl Sandburg once described Bernard Hoffman (1913-1979) as “Camera historian .. . man of philosophy and whim.” The two met at a shoot at the poet’s house. Sandburg let his 15 goats inside so the creatures wouldn’t freeze, then entertained one and all with his guitar. “They listened politely,” Hoffman said of the goats. His official company biography reads: “When I began to work for Time Inc., Dad was so mortified by what I had done, that he promptly moved to a different neighborhood.” He is best remembered for his stark pictures of Japan just after the atomic blasts.

—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

Farmer capping a peanut stack. (Photo by Bernard Hoffman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Shutterstock© Meredith Corporation)

Merrill’s Marauders (Photo by Bernard Hoffman/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Pan American Clipper passenger plane skimming the surface of water during take-off of 23-hour transatlantic flight to Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Bernard Hoffman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Shutterstock© Meredith Corporation)

Gutted trolley car amid Hiroshima ruins a few months after the dropping of the atomic bomb by the US, bringing a swift Japanese surrender and an end to WWII. (Photo by Bernard Hoffman/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

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LIFE photographer Martha Holmes working on assignment. (Photo by George Cardoza/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Martha Holmes (1923-2006) was one of those photographers who strove to make her subjects took good. She would find their best side, shadow their thinning hair or even touch up the picture afterwards. “If they know you’re on their side—and I am—that helps,” Holmes once said. A Kentucky native and elegant dresser, when she began her career at the Louisville Courier-Journal she always wore “a frilly little dress” on Sundays. One weekend, a fire broke out, and working that story got her to switch to culottes. She eventually donned slacks, but in any outfit, Holmes remained her unique, warm, courtly self.

—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

A view of picket lines in front of Paramount Studios during a set directors strike. (Photo by Martha Holmes/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Painter Jackson Pollock smoking as he squats on floor, applying paint to canvas in Long Island studio. (Photo by Martha Holmes/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Dean of Santas giving lecture at the Waldorf Santa Convention. (Photo by Martha Holmes/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

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Portrait of photographer James Jarche. (Photo by James Jarche/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Born in his father’s London photo studio, James Jarche (1891-1965) seemed destined for the trade—even though an apprenticeship with a successful Bond Street photographer lasted only one day. Having survived that initial misstep, Jarche became one of Britain’s first press photographers to make a name for himself back when it involved taking cameras where they had never been: to the tops of buildings or down the deepest mine shaft, to sporting events, political meetings or even trials. “At a dramatic moment,” he said, “my bowler hat—in which a small camera was concealed—would lift and click, the tell-tale sound covered by a well-timed cough.” With enough adventures to fill a book, Jarche wrote one. People I Have Shot became a British best-seller.

—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers

An Arabian showing off his head-dress while taking a drink of water. (Photo by James Jarche/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Armoured cars lining up, getting ready to move off to another front after capturing Fort Rutbah. (Photo by James Jarche/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

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