A Tribute to Sabine Weiss
Sabine Weiss’ deeply humanist approach to photography has always been able to capture the essence of the human condition. Now, on her 90th birthday, Le Salon de la Photo pays tribute to the Swiss born photographers brilliant work in an exhibition at the Paris Expo.
The exhibition will have three key events, which will includeover 100 “humanist” photographs by Weiss; a video tribute by Stephanie Grosjean titled Mon métier de Photographe (My profession as a photographer); and finally nine professional photographers, one for each decade of her life, will show a photo they’ve taken which was inspired by Weiss’ work. Photographers like Jean-Christophe Bechét and Marion Poussier, are just two of the nine photographers who have captured one photograph, with one approach and two eyes, to reinterpret what Weiss saw from a new angle.
Weiss has spent a majority of her life as a witness to the human condition and capturing it between the filter of her lens and eye, ever since she was a young girl.. She even spent her savings to buy a little Bakelite camera when she was young to mark the beginning of her uniquely human focused work.
Her fascination with daily life, emotions and people allowed her to create photos that were both poetic in their prose and sharp social observations in their naturalistic compositions. Most of her worked focuses in black-and-white, concentrating on achieving precise framing, quality of light and atmosphere.
Although Weiss’ work a focus of the exhibition, Le Salon de la Photo is also seeking to show the personal side of the photographer, a component often lost in the power of her work. The goal is to show just how deeply driven Weiss was and how her personal foray into existence not only marked the foundation for her inspiration, but also shaped the very nature of her work.
The exhibition will open in Paris on Thursday 13 November 2014 and will continue until Monday 17 November 2014.
