Dali's Mustache

Cult classic and collector’s item, Dali’s Mustache is the result of the astonishing artistic collaboration between surrealist Salvador Dalí and experimental photography pioneer Philippe Halsman. Dalí and Halsman were friends as well as professional collaborators for more than three decades. 

Subtitled A Photographic Interview, the concept of the book is one short question presented to Dalí, which Dalí answers, followed by a corresponding black-and-white photograph by Halsman. The photographs are intentionally absurd and hilarious. Early editions of this book came with a warning on the back that said “Warning! This book is preposterous.”

Question: "I have the feeling, to have discovered your secret, Salvador. Could it be that you are crazy?"
Answer:  "I am certainly saner than the person who bought this book."

Philippe Halsman's memorable photographs of the leading statesmen, scientists, entertainers and artists of our time continue to appear in magazines and books. In 1944, four years after arriving in the Unites States from France, his colleagues elected him first president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. In 1958 he was named one of the world's ten best photographers in an international poll.

His other publications include The Frenchman, Piccoli (a fairy tale), Philippe Halsman's Jump Book, Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas, and Sight and Insight, as well as Portraits and Halsman at Work, which were published by his family after his death in 1979. His work is represented in the permanent collections of numerous museums in the United States and abroad.