Sabine Weiss

A photographer’s life

Sabine Weiss (1924-2021) is one of the key representatives of the post-war movement that is usually referred to in France as "humanist photography" and which includes photographers such as Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis or Edouard Boubat. 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 to which the photographer actively contributed, 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 200 prints, archive documents and books and 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.

"Light, gesture, look, movement, silence, tension, rest, rigor, relaxation. I would like to incorporate everything in this moment so that the essential of the man is expressed with a minimum of means." Sabine Weiss

Credits

Curation

Virginie Chardin

Partners

An exhibition produced by the Atelier Sabine Weiss and Photo Elysée, with the support of the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles and the Jeu de Paume, under the patronage of the Swiss Consulate General in Milan.