life:
Happy Birthday, Philippe Halsman.
Of all the 20th century photographers who made a name for themselves with their portrait work, few managed to capture as dizzying an array of subjects as the Latvian-born master, Philippe Halsman.
Halsman (b. May 2, 1906; d. June 25, 1979) began his long, enormously productive relationship with LIFE in 1942, and eventually shot more than 50 covers for the magazine. Here, LIFE looks back at some of his most famous covers for the magazine.