Thowback Thursday: Gjon Mili

Gjon Mili

Born in Albania, Mili spent his childhood in Romania and moved to the United States in 1923. During his training as engineer learns photography by himself, working together with Harold Eugene Edgerton from MIT. Later he starts working for LIFE magazine.

Mili was a pioneer of Flash photography as well as one of the first to ever use the stroboscopic technique for reasons other than science. He tried to study motion and human body interaction by photographing dancers, musicians, actors, athletes with various techniques.

In 1949 he was sent by LIFE magazine to photograph Picasso. That was the time he introduced him to his light painting techniques that ended up to some of his most known photos “Picasso’s Light Drawings.”

Over the course of more than four decades, thousands of his pictures were published by Life as well as other publications.