A Photographer’s Life

Weiss is considered among the most important representatives of the humanist photography, which was to shape the history of the medium after World War II. Though primarily associated with the work of French photographers such as Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis and Brassaï, Weiss was an equally important representative of this photographic movement. The street as a stage, people’s everyday lives as a theme, the visual language ranging from poetic to social documentary: in addition to her commissioned work for fashion, commercials and reportage, she also photographed countless, now highly-regarded freelance works, which she mostly captured in Paris, but also on her many travels. She sought out chance encounters, was interested in her contemporaries’ lives and stories, and photographed those otherwise overlooked, in small moments full of empathy. 

The Sabine Weiss. A Photographer’s Life exhibition, which the photographer collaborated on right up until her death, is on display as of September 6, at f3 – freiraum für fotografie in Berlin. The retrospective is curated by Virginie Chardin, produced by the Sabine Weiss Studio and Photo Elysée, and shows a selection from Weiss's rich body of work. She died it Paris at the end of 2021, at 97 years of age. Bringing together original prints, archive documents and films, the exhibition sketches a portrait of a photographer who, with her insatiable curiosity about other people, not only compiled a sensitive body of work, but produced images that allow us to (re)discover a Paris that has long since disappeared. A wonderful tribute on the occasion of her centenary.