Dali Atomicus
[ 27 January 2008 ]
“Dali Atomicus” by Philippe Halsman.
This photograph was shot live. It took 26 attempts, & over five hours to get it to look like this. Halsman would count, & on ‘four’, Salvador Dali would leap in the air, three assistants would throw cats, one other assistant would chuck the bucket of water, & Halsman’s wife would hold the chair as Halsman took the picture.
Beautiful.
“One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams. “ — Salvador Dali
Super-love & cupcakes,
Gala 
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Holy cats! (hardee har har) That is fabulous…. I had seen the photo, but not heard the story behind it. Fantastic, thanks for sharing!
Amazing photo, though I have to wonder after the welfare of the cats…O.o
I’ve never heard that quote before, I love it. Thanks for posting this n_n
Every once in a while, you stumble across something that just speaks volumes to you. This is the exact inspiration I needed to keep trying to fix one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
Thank you Gala!
Eccentric art is the best kind of art, IMHO. :)
Fabulous, hmm? I think Saturday is a good day to have your mind blown!
oh my gosh! throwing cats, how cruel!
I would like to be the person who throws cats for Salvador Dali. That’s the best job title ever.
poor kitties!
an amazing picture though.
Spectacular picture, but I do feel badly for the poor cats!
The poor cats!
Aside from that, I wonder how the assistant got the water to go in that beautiful arc.
I wonder if they used the same cats every time or if they had extra, to give them a rest. I also wonder who’s cats they were…
And if they were sedated?
And if Mr. Dali got really tierd?
But it seems super worth it because this picture is beautiful!
I’ve seen this photo before :D. I study photography and we looked at it. It’s one of my favourites!
“No cats were harmed in the making of this photograph” hehe!
Ah! I love that picture! So inspiring. My brain is just had ideas for potential pictures start flying thru. Lol at Dali’s face.
That’s my desktop background in my office at the newspaper. :) Dali and I share a birthday.
xoxo.
Oh WOW. Maybe the cats didn’t mind because they were creating great art…?
Don’t worry about the cats.
What an amazing thing to do. Truly super.
I love Michel Gondry for the same reason. Having a loopy idea, thinking of how to do it, then doing it.
That is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Psst, Hello from Perth!
Whoa.
That is one AMAZING photograph.
I want to hug the poor cats, though, hahah.
this photo, this post… it all speaks bucketloads (i couldn’t think of a better expression, ugh)
kakeline- i think ‘bucketloads’ is only appropriate.
fabulous.
omg! my dad is an artist and recently he had an exhibition inspired by dali’s works…this is awesome!
does that mean they would have to dry the room 26 times?
Sigsy: Exactly why “don’t worry about the cats”?
scarlett — Perhaps because it’s in the past & nothing can be done about it now? That photograph was taken in 1948; I’m sure that if it was taken today, PETA would have Phillippe Halsman drawn & quartered, but it doesn’t diminish the brilliance of the piece.
Despite which, cats regularly jump off buildings for the hell of it. Research has shown that from a height of 1-4 storeys, a cat will land safely, & if you look at those cats, they’re no higher than Dali can jump. Between 5 & 7 storeys they can be injured, but anything above that & they basically use their bodies like parachutes to sail to the ground. WAY cool :D
Cats are so awesome. Everybody wants to be a cat, cause a cat’s the only cat, who knoooows where it’s at.
I love that picture, and Dali is so right.
ha ha!
my lover and i are ‘sober’ for like a week (and something) – which means quitting all the bad things in general – and last night we had some pillowtalk about reality…
we decided that everything looks more ‘phantasmal’ now – everything feels unreal… like being high on the real maybe?
reading that quote from dali first thing in the morning made my day.
coincidence is fun =]
AHAHAHAHAHA thats so funny!
Aww those poor,poor cats…shouldn’t laugh really…but…..heheheheh _
It wasn’t until I read the comments that I even vaguely thought that the cats might not like this….!
I mean, really — this is probably my new favourite photograph of, like, EVER, c’mon, I’m sure the cats were fine afterwards! In my experience they recover from trauma pretty quickly.
Not that I’ve ever attempted a photo quite like this.
...I might have to now.
Love it…. I have the imagine sound of cats squealing in my ears … but hey.. cats always land on there feet right? Everyone relax I’m sure they were fine!
Some time ago, in a photography course I undertook, the lecturer sat us down and showed us a series of pictures, with the aim of demonstrating to us how even the best photographers have many failures, until they get it right. This was my favourite example of the idea, as seeing the out-takes from the shoot, you’re pretty ambivalent until finally you see the end result and get a an eyeful of this brilliant image. It really does make you think about how many ‘failures’ or unsuccessful attempts we make at things, to achieve what we desire. Those attempts only serve to make the end product better.
Ohh, thank you for that! This is one of my favorite photos from when I was a little kid. I clipped it out of a magazine and it’s been hanging on my wall ever since. I’ve been trying to find out the name, but none of my friends knew what it was.
Oh, this makes my day! Now I’m skipping off to buy a full size print.
AMAZING!!! :)
Gala
I hate to disagree with you on your comments about cat and jumping off buildings. Everything you said is myth and totally wrong.
They do not jump off for the hell of it. They often become disoriented and FALL. And can seriously injure themselves. Falls can result in shattered jaws, punctured lungs, broken limbs and pelvises—and even death.
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pets_highrise
Also, these animal were obviously forced to do this so a little expressed concern is not out of line, even if it was in the past. How else to learn for the future?
It’s an interesting image but would it be just as cool if they were throwing babies? I know that’s a little inflamatory but still.
So not cool at all in my book.
Poochie
Oh I do feel for those cats. Just because “they were probably fine” doesn’t mean they weren’t frightened something awful.
this has been my desktop background for a long time :D
i read a quote by the photographer saying something along the lines of the fact that the humans were more annoyed, tired and wet than the cats by the end of the day.
sophie~ — I love you.
Everybody else — I don’t know what to say. The purpose of this website is to celebrate life & individuality. Good art tends to polarise, & that’s okay. Some people love this photograph, some people despise it, & that all ties in with the ideals of iCiNG.
Whether you want to treat cats this way or not is up to you. I personally wouldn’t, but that’s just me.
Regardless, everyone involved in the production of this photograph is dead now. I posted this picture because I thought it was fantastic & inspiring, not to talk about the treatment of the subjects.
I’m going to close the comments because I don’t think talking about cats in further detail is going to help change what has already happened.
Thanks for understanding.