The famous photograph by Philippe Halsman showing Salvador Dalí and floating objects is titled Dalí Atomicus.
Halsman made the surreal photograph in 1948 in his New York studio. Dalí appears mid-jump while three cats, a bucket of water, a chair, an easel, and other objects seem suspended around him. The composition was inspired partly by Dalí’s painting Leda Atomica, whose title evoked the suspension of particles in an atom.
The effect was created practically rather than through digital editing. Assistants threw cats and water into the air as Dalí jumped, while wires and supports held some furniture and artwork. Halsman reportedly needed at least 26 attempts, and the demanding session lasted five to six hours.
A common mix-up is confusing the photograph with Dalí’s paintings The Persistence of Memory or The Hallucinogenic Toreador. Dalí Atomicus was published in Life magazine in 1948 and helped inspire Halsman’s later practice of photographing people jumping, which he called “jumpology.”