Sabine
Hommage à la photographé Sabine Weiss

December 3, 2014 – February 8, 2015

In anticipation of Christmas Holidays he Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography and Lumiere Brothers Gallery present the solo exhibition of a Swiss-French photographer Sabine Weiss. The exhibition is arranged to coincide with Sabine Weiss’ 90th anniversary that she celebrated this summer.

Most of the pictures, featured at the exhibition, were taken in France in the 1950s-80s. This period was crucial for formation of Sabine’s individual style. Apart from French photographs, The Center presents shots taken during the photographer’s trips to Burma, Morocco, Portugal and Malta. All photographs are gelatin silver printed and are provided by the artist.

Sabine Weiss was born in Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland. At the age of twelve she gets interested in photography and dreams of becoming a professional photographer. Pursuing her dream, Sabine enters a photography school in Genève and after graduation moves to Paris. In France she gets charmed by its post-war capital, she becomes a personal assistant of the photographer Willy Maywald and starts to take a lot of photographs herself: Parisian cafés, streets and people. In 1952 Sabine signs a nine-year contract with Vogue magazine and starts to collaborate with Parisian photo agency Rapho, where she was invited by Robert Doisneau. At that time Sabine works on commissions for European and American magazines (Time, Life, Newsweek, Paris Match) and a lot for advertising. But the real fame came when three of Sabine’s photographs were featured at the most celebrated photo-exhibition of all time The Family of Man in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Sabine Weiss ranges among the classics who transformed reportage photography into real art. Her humanistic approach with permanent focus on the man is evident. Nowadays Sabine Weiss is one of the few women in reportage photography whose art combines everyday poetry with sharp social observation.

Sabine Weiss turned 90 in July 2014. A great celebration of the anniversary took place at the European House of Photography (Maison Européenne de la Photographie). Within the framework of Photography Month 2014 in Paris Salon de la Photo held Sabine’s exhibition. Following Paris, the exhibition devoted to Sabine Weiss’ anniversary, opens in Moscow.

Sabine Weiss’ photographs are in the collections of Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York Metropolitan Museum, Chicago Institute of Art, George Pompidou Center, European House of Photography, Kunsthaus Zurich, Lausanne Photography Museum. Weiss bears the title of the Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters.