Una vita da fotografa
Exhibition produced by Atelier Sabine Weiss and Photo Elysée
With the support of Les Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles and Jeu de Paume
Under the patronage of The Consulate General of Switzerland in Milan
Light, gesture, gaze, movement, silence, tension, rest, rigor and relaxation. I would like to include everything in this moment so that the essential nature of the human being may be expressed with the slightest of means.
Sabine Weiss
Sabine Weiss (1924–2021) is probably the longest-standing photographer in history. She was one of the key representatives of the post-war movement that is usually referred to in France as ‘humanist photography’, and to which photographers such as Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis or Edouard Boubat belonged.
Reportage, illustration, fashion, advertising, artist portraits as well as her own personal work: Sabine Weiss approached all areas of photography as a challenge, a pretext for meeting and travelling, a way of life and a means of self-expression.
The retrospective titled A photographer’s life, to which she contributed up until her last breath, bears witness to the passion of a lifetime and highlights the dominant elements of a way of working in constant empathy with the human being. Through more than 140 original prints, 50 archive documents and three film excerpts, the artist outlines an approach to photography inspired by an insatiable curiosity for others, both in France, where she settled in 1946, as well as in almost all European countries (including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany, Austria, England, Denmark, Malta and Hungary), the United States and Asia, where she continued to travel right up until the end of her life.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in Italian and English published by Marsilio Editori.
Listen to the words of curator Virginie Chardin