Melvin Sokolsky: " Fashion in a Bubble "

" Taking a photography is an unspoken conversation in a shared space where the sitter and the maker reveal their being in a kind of silent dance of escalating trust and affinity."
~~Melvin Sokolsky

Born 1938 in New York, Melvin Sokolsky was a major figure in the revival of fashion photography from the 1960s. He was only 21 when he started working at Harper's Bazaar for which he produced the "Bubble" series of photographs depicting fashion models floating in giant clear plastic bubbles suspended in midair above the Seine river in Paris. Alongside his steady collaboration with Bazaar, he also worked for  publications such as Vogue and the New York Times.
After over a decade as a professional photographer, Sokolsky started working in motion pictures in 1975, and decided to move to Los Angeles, where he began a parallel career as a filmmaker, mostly in advertising. In the early 2000s he resumed his photographic activity and developed projects with many overseas magazines.

Since it reopened in October 2010, Le Royal Monceau - Raffles has pursued an active role in the cultural and artistic life of Paris. For its first summer of Art District, the Parisian hotel has decided to celebrate the meeting between fashion and photography with a new exhibition, entitled Retrospective. 
This exhibition is showing Sokolsky's photographs from the "Bubble" and "Fly" series. Shot in 1963 and 1965, they rank among the classics of photography, emblematic images of Sokolsky's work, a light and playful world of enchantment.

Melvin Sokolsky

Bubble Series
Over New York, New York 1963

On the Seine, Paris 1963

Le Dragon, Paris 1963

After Delvaux, Paris 1963

Du Taxi, Paris 1963

In Trees, Paris 1963

Fly Series

Fly High, Paris 1965

Fly Dior, Paris 1965

Sidekick, Paris 1965

Courtesy Le Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris

Melvin Sokolsky: "Retrospective"

July 7 - September 3, 2011