“I take photographs to hold on to the ephemeral, capture chance, keep an image of something that will disappear, gestures, attitudes, objects that are reminders of our brief lives. The camera picks them up and freezes them at the very moment that they disappear.” -Sabine Weiss
Sabine Weiss was one of the first street photographers. In an interview in 2016 for the Jeu de Paume in Paris she said, “What I shot at the time was essentially people in the street. I liked that, and was drawn to it. I had to take photos of something, but never set pieces, always spontaneous.”
Along with members of the humanist movement, she pioneered what became know today as street photography.
Humanist Movement
The work of photographers including Robert Doisneau, Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Willy Ronis made up what would be named the humanists by historians in the 1970s. The humanist photographers had a common interest in photographing spontaneous happenings that portrayed everyday life.
These photographers worked with the newest photographic technologies. They used small, easy-to-carry cameras. These tools helped them go around the streets of Paris photographing anything that captured their attention.
The only woman
Sabine Weiss was the only woman in the humanist cohort. She did not like the label and considered her street photography as only one part of her work. Most of her career was as a photojournalist and as a fashion photographer. Some of the celebrities in her photographs numbered the likes of the actress Bridgette Bardot (opening photo, bottom row, second top image), the musicians Pablo Casals and Benjamin Britten and her good friend, artist Alberto Giacometti (opening photo, top row, second image from left).
Weiss noted in a 2014 conversation with Agence France-Presse “From the start, I had to make a living from photography; it wasn’t something artistic. It was a craft, I was a craftswoman of photography.”
Less well known
Sabine Weiss did not show much of her personal work so she was not as prominent as the other humanists. Her images were included in two large exhibits curated by Alfred Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art — 1953’s “Postwar European Photography” and “The Family of Man” in 1955.
In the last 10 years, her work has become better recognized because of three exhibitions in France. A new generation of admirers have recognized her talent in capturing what Henri Cartier-Bresson called the “decisive moment.”
“She was a very spontaneous photographer,” Virginie Chardin, who curated two of the shows, said in a phone interview. “She was interested above all in the people.”
Toy camera
Sabine Weiss’s early photography was supported by her father. She bought a Bakelite camera with her own money when she was 12. Later she said, “it was like a toy.” She learned how to develop film and make prints.
The family moved Geneva Switerland and in 1942, she dropped out of high school to take a four-year assistanceship with the Swiss photographer Frédéric Boissonnas. Next, in 1947, she assisted Willy Maywald, a fashion photographer took her to Paris where she worked with him to take pictures of the “New Look” landmark show by Chriseian Dior.
Small studio
She met and started going out with American painter Hugh Weiss in Paris. After a year, in 1947, they married.
She opened her studio on Boulevard Murat in 1950 across the street from her countryman, painter and artist Alberto Giacometti. They were good friends and Giacometti was a regular subject of her photographs. He is drawing his wife, Annette in the opening photo, top row, last image.
The studio that also was their living space was only 215 square feet and had no running water. Over time they added on to it and lived there for the rest of their lives.
Fashion and other work
Sabine Weiss was introduced to the Rapho agency by Robert Doisneau. The agency represented other French photographers including some of the humanists. Her work for the Picture Post, Paris Match, Die Woche and for Time, LIFE, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue and Newsweek. The American publications had her come to New York where she photographed street scenes.
Her professional work made her do street photography at night while walking around with her husband, Hugh. Her famous image “Man, Running” in 1953 shows him running on cobblestones lit only by a street light.
They were at team with her offering critical commentary on his paintings and his encouraging her to show her personal photographs to museums.
More recognition
As the humanist movement became more well known, Sabine Weiss began receiving grants that allowed her to focus on her own work. She continued her street photography as she traveled. She returned to Paris and continued to shoot in its streets.
Her work has been shown in 160 exhibitions. It is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Centre Pompidou in Paris.
By 2011, she had stopped shooting even though she had a digital camera. She found that so many people had cameras that they were less and less open to being photographed. She said, “people don’t really take pictures of the world around them anymore, instead they take pictures of themselves.”
Donation
Her entire archive of 200,000 negatives and 7,000 contact sheets were given to the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2017. Most of the work has never been seen.
2016 interview
In this 11-minute video, Sabine talks about her life in photography, people she has photographed and her experiences make them including Bridgette Bardot and on the streets.
Sources: New York Times, France 24, Holden Luntz Gallery.
