West Point

In 1986, Lippman was invited to give a series of lectures to the cadets of the United States Military Academy at West Point. To the surprise of this photographer known for her ethereal, spiritually-infused work, Lippman encountered in West Point a goldmine of visual inspiration, a world at once seductive and frightening, stark and immaculate, a world in which she quickly came to see the "humanity behind the helmet". And, as a photographer, she knew she had found her "visual dreamworld - a black-and-white backdrop with graphics and texture and 4000 men". West Point is her stunning and poignant collection of photographs of the handsome young cadets in uniform, in fatigues or in casual dress, at rest, at play, on the football field, in training, in formation or by the swimming pool. While Lippman's focus is the young men of West Point, the sense of place is overwhelming in her sublime framing of the splendid, impeccable grounds, and the monolithic, looming Academy buildings above the Hudson River.