Sabine Weiss, photographer of the moment. In Venice the largest retrospective ever made so far
From reportage to portraits, from fashion to street shots with particular attention to children’s faces up to numerous trips around the world, Sabine Weiss –one of the major representatives of French humanist photography together with Doisneau, Ronis, Boubat, Brassaï and Izis- she is the only post-war female photographer to have practiced this profession for so long and in all fields of photography. Thanks to the active participation of Weiss herselfwho before his death had opened his personal archives in Paris, the exhibition itinerary is told in a structured way, restoring the extraordinary nature of his work.
There are several unpublished works presented at the Tre Ocisuch as the series dedicated to asylums, made during the winter of 1951-1952 in France in the Cher department, and remained unknown until today, which retrace Weiss’s entire career together with various publications and magazines of the time, from the beginnings in 1935 to the 1980s. Bodies and gestures, emotions and feelings are from the beginning his world of investigation, in line with French humanist photography, an approach from which he will never deviate.
Born Weber in Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland, on July 23, 1924, Sabine, who she will take the surname from her husband, the American painter Hugh Weiss (Philadelphia, 1925 – Paris, 2007), approaches photography at a young age. He did his apprenticeship with the Boissonnas, a dynasty of photographers who have worked in Geneva since the end of the 19th century. In 1946 he left Geneva for Paris and becomes theassistant to Willy Maywald, German photographer in fashion and portraits. When Hugh married in 1950, he embarked on a career as an independent photographer. Together, they move into a small Parisian studio, where Weiss still lives, and frequent the postwar art scene.
One of the main nuclei of the exhibition tells the 1950s of the twentieth century, moment of the international recognition of photography. In fact, in 1952, his career took a decisive turn when he joined the Rapho agency, on the recommendation of Robert Doisneau. From 1953 onwards his photographs are published by major international newspapers such as “Picture Post”, “Paris Match”, “Vogue”, “Le Ore”, “The New York Times”, “Life”, “Newsweek”. In the same year Weiss participates in the “Post War European Photography” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) and in 1954 the Art Institute of Chicago dedicated an important solo exhibition to her. In 1955 three of her shots were chosen by Edward Steichen for the historical anthology “The Family of Man”, at the MOMA in New York. From 1952 to 1961 Sabine Weiss was alongside photographers William Klein, Henry Clarke and Guy Bourdin on Rowing, with which he realizes memorable fashion shoots, of which vivid color shots are exhibited together with about fifteen original issues of the famous magazine. A particular section is then dedicated to his portraits of painters, sculptors, actors and musicians. For five years, Hugh Weiss is the mentor of the artist Niki de Saint Phalle, while Sabine is close to Annette Giacometti, the wife of the great sculptor Alberto. On display there is no shortage of their portraits alongside those of other personalities such as Robert Rauschenberg, Françoise Sagan, Romy Schneider, Ella Fitzgerald, Simone Signoret and Brigitte Bardot.
America, reached in 1955 on the ocean liner Freedom in the company of her husband Hugh, she strongly impresses her, and her shots taken in New York in its streets teeming with details, from the Bronx to Harlem, from Chinatown to Ninth Avenueare publications from New York Times in an extensive report entitled “New Yorkers (and Washington) of a Parisian”. They are images that they tell about America with a French point of view, with strong humor, many of which are only exhibited today, for the first time in Italy, on the occasion of the retrospective at the Tre Oci. On loneliness, faith and moments of reflection of existence are the works created since the 1980s, while traveling to Portugal, India, Burma, Bulgaria and Egypt.
The review concludes with a series of excerpts from documentary films and her dedicated as The black room from 1965; Sabine Weiss of 2005, My job as a photograph of 2014, in which the photographer told, in different periods of her life, about her artistic path, her travel experiences and the difficulty of being a female photographer. Sabine Weiss is a symbol of courage and freedom for all generations.
The catalog, published by Marsilio Arte, offers unpublished images, the texts of Virginie Chardin, curator of the exhibition, and Denis Curti, artistic director of the Casa dei Tre Oci.
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