Melvin Sokolsky ‘s whimsical bubbles

“I have always loved telling stories.. stories about people who breathe and feel and suffer and dream. Stories that explore and create different worlds within the world we all live in” Melvin Sokolsky

Bubble on the Seine, Simone d’Aillencourt, Harper’s Bazaar, Paris, 1963

The Story of Solkosky’s whimsical bubbles

Settings: Paris, 1963

Leading actor: Born and raised in New York City and best known for his editorial fashion photographs for publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The New York Times, Sokolsky lacked of academic technical education which he compensated with sense of fantasy and invention. Surrealism is an influence in his plays with proportion and reality.

Plot: Haunted by a particular image from Hieronymous Bosch’s painting ‘The Garden of Delights,’ where in a particular scene there is a naked couple inside a sphere, Sokolsky had a re-occurring dream in which he saw himself floating in the air inside a transparent bubble. Inspired, he decided to use the idea for the series Bubble he created in 1963 for the spring edition of Harper’s Bazaar. The Bubble was crafted in plexiglass and alluminium to emulate a Faberge Egg, for which Sokolsky had great admiration. Model Simone d’Aillencourt, with whom he had great chemistry, would get into the Bubble that was suspended a few feet off the ground and hung from a cable on a crane in various locations around Paris. The final work received many appreciations.