What Can You Tell Me About The 'Dali Atomicus' Photo?

Question

I Remember Seeing The Image Of 'Dali Atomicus' (yahoo! search it) And I Just Fell In Love With The Photo..

Thing Is, I Want To Know More!

What Details Can You Tell Me About This Photo, Like:
Who Took It?
How Did They Do It? (some sort of stop motion, i'm guessing)
How Did They Get It All To Float, The Water Like That..
And Are Those Cats Ok?

Or Maybe Other Details (but not about salvador dali himself, just about the image)..

It's Ok If You Can't Answer All Questions, But Something Would Be Appreciated!
Thanks!

Answer 1

The person responisble for the photo was Philippe Halsman. In terms of how you create such a photo it is quite simple, it is simply done with a fairly powerful set of studio strobe lights, and a fast shutter speed coupled most likely with a large aperture and fast ISO film. its not hard to capture motion like this, but admittedly the way that he had shot the photo, very difficult to get the composition just perfect, in fact about 6 hours and 28 photos just to get this one image. Anyhow, below is a description of how the photo was shot.

Halsman set up his New York studio and using the 4 x 5 format, twin-lens reflex camera that he had designed in 1947 (Bello 206), he prepared to capture one of his most memorable photographs. He suspended an easel, two paintings by Dali (one of which was “Leda Atomica”), and a stepping stool; had his wife, Yvonne, hold a chair in the air (Jeffrey 192); on the count of three, his assistants threw three cats and a bucket of water into the air; and on the count of four, Dali jumped and Halsman snapped the picture. While his assistants mopped the floor and consoled the cats, Halsman went to the darkroom, developed the film, and reemerged to do it again. “Six hours and twenty-eight throws later, the result satisfied my striving for perfection,” wrote Halsman in his book Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas. “My assistants and I were wet, dirty, and near complete exhaustion—only the cats still looked like new.”