The title of the photograph is a direct nod to Dalí’s painting, Leda Atomica, which can be seen floating in mid-air on the right side of the frame behind the cat. Following the dropping of the atomic bombs in 1945, Dalí became deeply fascinated by quantum physics. He grew obsessed with the idea that all matter is composed of atoms suspended in a constant void, never truly touching. The photograph was designed to bring this theory to life: a world where absolutely everything is suspended in a state of suspension.
There are no trick cameras or hidden support wires. For each individual take, a countdown was called, and the following actions happened simultaneously:
- Two assistants threw a bucket of water from the left.
- Two assistants tossed three live cats from the right.
- Halsman’s wife held up the chair on the far left.
- Salvador Dalí leaped high into the air.
- Halsman fired the shutter of his twin-lens reflex camera.
After every attempt, Halsman had to go down to his darkroom to develop the glass plate and check the composition, while assistants mopped the studio floor and dried the cats (who were treated well and fed throughout the process). It took 28 takes and over six hours of exhausting work to get the perfect frame where the water beautifully arcs, the cats do not block Dalí’s face, and Dalí’s jump is perfectly timed.