Sabine Weiss (photographer)
Sabine Weiss | |
---|---|
Canton of Valais, Switzerland | |
Died | 28 December 2021 Paris, France | (aged 97)
Nationality | Swiss, French |
Known for | Photography |
Movement | Humanist photography |
Sabine Weiss (
Early life and training
Sabine Weber was born on 23 January 1924 in Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland.[1] Her father was a chemical engineer who made artificial pearls from fish scales. The family lived adjacent to the border post and left Saint-Gingolph while she was still a child. Attracted at a young age by photography, she stated around 2007:
I realized very young that photography would be my means of expression. I was more visual than intellectual ... I was not very good at studying. I left high school, I left on a summer day on a bicycle.[2]
Weiss began to photograph in 1932 with a bakelite camera bought with her pocket money and made contact prints on printing-out paper on her windowsill. Her father supported her in her choice, and she later learned photographic technique, from 1942 to 1946, from Frédéric Boissonnas, a studio photographer in Geneva. After this apprenticeship, she received the Swiss qualification in photography in 1945.
Paris
Weiss moved to Paris in 1946 and became Willy Maywald's assistant:
When I came to Paris, I was able to work at Maywald, whom a friend had recommended to me. I worked there in conditions unimaginable today, but with him I understood the importance of natural light. Natural light as a source of emotion.[3]
Maywald was working at that time on the first floor of a shed on 22 Jacob Street which belonged to an antiques dealer, and that had neither water nor telephone. This work nevertheless allowed her to rub shoulders with the 'who's who' of Paris of the time. She published her first photo report at the age of 21 in 1945. She thus attended the opening of the house of
She worked in various sectors: passionate about music, she portrayed the big names in music (
etc.). Her attention shifted toward documentary photography and she traveled not only in the United States but also in Egypt, India, Morocco, and Myanmar.Rapho agency
From 1950, Weiss was represented by Agence Rapho, the leading French press agency managing the work of Robert Doisneau. He offered her a place in the agency after a meeting in the office of the director of Vogue. She befriended artists such as Cocteau, Utrillo, Rouault, and Lartigue.
Amongst colleagues
Although she is in a very masculine environment, she has really managed to be accepted immediately, to establish herself as what she is since: a very great photographer whom I esteem and admire“[4]
Weiss's
I photograph to preserve the ephemeral, fix chance, to keep in an image what will disappear: gestures, attitudes, objects which are testimonies of our passing.[6]
In 1957, Weiss created a series of photographs of the painter Kees van Dongen, whom she met through her husband, and on impulse the trio bought a small shed there overlooking the ruins of the castle at Grimaud. They enlarged the house in 1969 and stayed regularly until the death of her husband in 2007.[7]
In 1983, Weiss obtained a scholarship from the
Her photographs are distributed by the agency
Personal life and death
Weiss died on 28 December 2021, at the age of 97 at her residence in Paris.[10][11]
Publications
- J'aime le théâtre, de Catherine Valogne, Rencontres, Suisse, 1962, 301.p. In-12, illustrated with B&W photography.
- A week in Daniel's World: France, Sabine Weiss and Hugh Weiss, 1969, Crowell-Collier Press. ISBN 9780027925906
- En passant, Contrejour, France, 1978
- Marchés et Foires de Paris, ACE, France, 1982
- Intimes convictions, by Claude Nori, Contrejour, France, 1989
- Hadad, Peintres, Cercle d'Art, 1992
- Vu à Pontoise, municipales, 1992
- La Réunion, galerie Vincent, Saint Pierre, 1995
- Bulgarie, Fata Morgana, 1996
- Giacometti, Fata Morgana, 1997
- Des enfants, text by Marie Nimier, Hazan, 1997, (ISBN 2-85025-574-2)
- Poussettes, charrettes et roulettes, Musée de Bièvres, 2000
- André Breton, text by Julien Gracq, Fata Morgana, 2000
- Sabine Weiss soixante ans de photographie, by Jean Vautrin and Weiss, La Martinière, 2003
- Claudia de Medici, 2004
- Musiciens des villes et des campagnes, par Weiss, Gabriel Bauret et Ingrid Jurzak (Filigranes), 2006, (ISBN 9 782350 460741)
- See and Feel, ABP (Pays-Bas), 2007
- "Masques et Rites, Burkina Faso", in the revue d'art TROU, no. 20, 2010
- l'Œil intime, Presses de e-Center, 2011, (ISBN 978-2-35130-056-5)
- l'Œil intime, Impression Escourbiac, new edition October 2014, (ISBN 978-2-95493-890-5)
- Sabine Weiss, co-edition with Jeu de Paume / La Martinière, preface by Marta Gili, text by Virginie Chardin, June 2016
Exhibitions
- "Sabine Weiss. La poesia dell’istante", La Casa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy, 11 March 2022 - 23 October 2022[12]
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
- ^ Jean Vautrin, Soixante ans de photographies, monographie, Éditions de La Martinière, 2007
- ^ Jean Vautrin, Sabine Weiss, Éditions de La Martinière, Paris, 2003.
- ^ a b Vincent Jolly, " Sabine Weiss, le monde d'hier " [archive], Le Figaro Magazine, week of June 10, 2016, pages 68–73
- ISBN 0-19-866271-8).
- ^ Film-documentaire.fr. "Sabine Weiss, une vie de photographe". www.film-documentaire.fr (in French). Retrieved 8 October 2023.
- ^ Raphaël Dupouy, 'La dame au regard d'enfant' in Figure Libre, no 29, April 2010.
- ^ Powell, R. (1984) 'Oeil Arlesien: 2'. The British Journal of Photography, 131(6473), 886–890.
- ^ Caroline Stevan, "Je n'aime que les photographies prises dans la rue", Le Temps, 12 June 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
- ^ "Sabine Weiss: Legend of street photography dies at 97". BBC News. 29 December 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ^ "Sabine Weiss obituary". The Guardian. 31 December 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
- ^ "SABINE WEISS. LA POESIA DELL'ISTANTE". www.treoci.org. Retrieved 25 May 2022.