Lot 171: TONI FRISSELL (1907-1988)

TONI FRISSELL (1907-1988)
First Bikini, Harper's Bazaar, Montego Bay, Jamaica, 1945
gelatin silver print, printed later
signed by the Executor in pencil and Archive stamp (on the verso)
11¼ x 10½in. (28.4 x 26.6cm.)

Harper's Bazaar, May 1947;
Hall-Duncan, The History of Fashion Photography, Alpine Book Company, 1979, p. 75;
Plimpton and Frissell Stafford, Toni Frissell Photographs 1933-1967, Doubleday, 1994, p. 20.

Staley-Wise Gallery, New York;
acquired 2000.

Model Dovima was dressed in the first bikini to be seen away from France. Next to the Casablanca was a tall white diving platform up fifty feet. I called to the fisherman and asked if he would let my model pose below the diving board. The effect was remarkable. The picture won an art award the next year.
Toni Frissell