Sam Shaw’s spontaneous pictures are well known, his images belong to photographic history and at least one of them goes around the world and was one of the images reproduced most in the 20th century.
Sam Shaw (1912- 1999), native and lifelong New Yorker, shot countless cover photographs for Life and Look in the fifties and sixties, and later also took the still images for the films he produced himself. He also portrayed almost every major Hollywood star, artist, and intellectual of his day, consistently capturing the perfect moment, sometimes as if he were selecting the camera angle for a film sequence.
In cooperation with the Shaw Family Archives, New York, we have curated an exhibit containing 230 black and white photographs - a retrospective selection from his complete body of photographic work. The exhibition is including rare and unseen photographs spanning over six decades of Sam Shaw’s prolific career, from photojournalism, crime, sports, and portraiture to filmmaking. A survey of his work was never seen before and is unique for Europe.
High resolution scans of a variety of motifs are available for press, invitation card, and poster printing needs. Also available on CD as editable documents, in both German and English language, are press materials, photo captions, as well as a personal time line, and upon request, also quotations from Sam Shaw on his photography and work.
A book published by Hatje Cantz Publishers, Germany (240 pp., 200 ills. in duotone, 27.5 x 31.2 cm, hardcover) is accompanying the exhibition tour. This book can also be printed with additional text contributions and in other languages.
Further information available upon request