Renowned art director experienced revival in 1990s
(NEWSER) - Lillian Bassman, who shot to fame as a self-taught photographer and the daring art director of a Harper's Bazaar spin-off, died yesterday at 94 in her Manhattan home. Bassman, born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx, studied fabric design and fashion illustration, and became a protégé of Alexey Brodovitch, the Bazaar art director. She studied graphic design under him and soon became his first paid assistant; by 1945, she was sharing the art director title with him at Junior Bazaar. On her own, she experimented with darkroom methods and soon began taking her own photographs. More»