A Photographer’s Life

Sabine Weiss

July 23, 2024

July 23rd marks the centenary of the birthday of the great humanist photographer Sabine Weiss. An exhibition of her work will be opening in Berlin in September. 
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.
Ulrich Rüter
All images on this page: © Sabine Weiss, Collections Photo Elysée, Lausanne

A Photographers Life+-

The Sabine Weiss. A Photographer’s Life exhibitions runs from September 6 to November 24, 2024 at f3 – freiraum für fotografie.

LFI 3.2018+-

LFI honoured the photographer in the Leica Classic segment of LFI issue 3.2018. More

Sabine Weiss+-

Sabine Weiss©Lily Franey
© Lily Franey

Born Sabine Weber on July 23, 1924 in Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland. After training at the renowned Atelier Boissonnas in Geneva, she moved to Paris in 1946, where she first worked as an assistant to fashion photographer Willy Maywald. She began working as a freelance photographer in 1949, married the US artist, Hugh Weiss (1925–2007) in 1950, and became a member of the Rapho Photo Agency in 1952, working for numerous national and international magazines. The rediscovery of her early black and white photography in exhibitions since the late 1970s, was accompanied by new works created on numerous trips around the world. She favoured working with a Leica and a Rolleiflex. In 2017, the photographer – who had had French nationality for a long time – was honoured for her life's work by the Swiss Photo Academy. Weiss passed away in Paris on December 28, 2021. Her legacy is cared for by Photo Elysée in Lausanne, and includes around 160,000 begative, 7,000 contact sheets, 8,000 prints, 46,000 slides and comprehensive documentary material. More

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A Photographer’s Life

Sabine Weiss