GJON MILI

Gjon Mili was born in Albania in 1904. In 1923, his family immigrated to the United States, where he studied electrical technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later, he became a lighting equipment engineer at Westinghouse. After performing experiments with Harold Edgerton, Gjon Mili created tungsten lamps, which are used in color photography, and invented motion photographs. His subsequent inventions in the sphere of stroboscopic images attracted the attention of LIFE magazine. He worked for the publication from 1939 until his death and produced images of dancing, sports, and theatrical performances, all in motion. Mili also took portraits of artists, musicians, athletes, dancers, and actors. Mili demonstrated the mechanics of a human body to post-war society in his numerous photographs for LIFE. His dynamic fashion and advertising images showed his ability to creatively adapt his discoveries without overloading a photo. He also directed films about artists, including ‘Jammin’ the Blues,’ ‘Eisenstaedt Photographs,’ ‘The Tall Man,’ and ‘Homage to Picasso.’ After the magazine began to be printed in color, Mili taught at Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Hunter College. His numerous exhibitions include ‘Dancers in Movement’ and ‘Photographs of Picasso,’ which took place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The first retrospective of Gjon Mili took place at the International Center of Photography in 1980. In that same year, the book ‘Gjon Mili: Photographs and Recollections,’ which covers 50 years of his work, was published.