Two original black and white photographs from the making of Hans Richter's film "8 x 8

Very Good. Two striking original photographs taken during the filming of Hans Richter's "8 x 8". One of the two photographs is signed in red ink by Philippe Halsman, the photographer of both. A note on the back of the signed photo notes that Halsman signed this picture and that the film's cinematographer Arnold Eagle is visible in the background. The photos are mounted on discolored pieces of cardboard. In his original script for the film's prologue, Richter wrote: "...my film 8 x 8 is a bizarre comedy-drama, signs and sounds not only out of this world probably not even in the next. 8 x 8 mixes equal parts of Freud and Lewis Carroll, with Venice, Venus, and Old Vienna, Cocteau and Bullfights, surrealism, magic, dreams, girls and practically anything else that may currently be in your minds." Hans Richter] undertook [8 x 8] at the suggestion of Marcel Duchamp, a chess enthusiast, after The Minotaur, a planned sequel to the 'Narcissus' episode of Dreams That Money Can Buy, failed to secure funding, although 8 x 8 engaged similar concerns... 'Chess is so universal,' wrote Richter to Jean Cocteau about this new project, 'that practically every human situation has its corresponding move among the countless possibilities of chess...' The filmmaker further recognized a kinship between the work, which took its title from the layout of a chessboard, and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Some of the artists who appeared in this film included Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Alexander Calder. The photographs are accompanied by a reprint of an article that was written by Lewis Carroll collectors, August and Clare Imholtz, for the Fall 2019 issue of "Knight Letter" about the film and its participants, along with a discussion of each of the photos. The photos are in very good condition. They measure 10.5 x 13.5 inches. PHOTO/062424.