Sabine Weiss’s World

Marché aux puces, Paris, 1952
Modern gelatin-silver print, signed by the artist
Print size: 12 x 16 inches
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

ParisArt & Culture

Sabine Weiss’s World

Parisian gallery explore nuanced narrative of seminal Swiss photographer Sabine Weiss's affective work...

It’s a decade between Sabine Weiss buying her first camera and moving to Paris to become assistant to reputed German fashion photographer Willy Maywald yet, unbelievably, the Swiss was still just 22. It is 1952 when photojournalism pioneer Robert Doisneau discovers her work, and the same year when the rising star signs a nine year-contract with Vogue. The rest, is history.

Sabine Weiss’s World at Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

Courses à Auteuil, Paris, 1952
Modern gelatin-silver print, signed by the artist
Print size: 12 x 16 inches
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

Over 60 years have passed, but Weiss’s work has lost none of its potency; her practice continuing to evolve and engage since. The subject of countless exhibitions and retrospectives, it’s the time of Parisian gallery Les Douches la Galerie to honour the photographer’s work — focussing on some lesser known areas of her work, the gallery fully aware of the presumptuousness of claiming to portray an exhaustive overview of her long career.

‘Her photos are the beginning of a story.’ says scriptwriter Olivier Beer of Weiss’s photography. ‘Or the middle. Or the end. And they are often a whole film. You enter one of her photographs as you would enter a cinema.’ It’s hard to argue. The beauty of Sabine’s work is its nuanced capturing of a fleeting moment in time; it’s ability to weave infinite narrative into one, single image. You can gaze, longingly, into each snapshot — their stories unfolding, your imagination the only limitation.

Sabine Weiss’s World continues at Les Douches la Galerie, Paris, until 30 July.

@les_douches

New York, 1955

New York, 1955
Modern gelatin-silver print, signed by the artist
Print size: 20 x 24 inches
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

L'audace, 1950

L’audace, 1950
Modern gelatin-silver print, signed by the artist
Print size: 12 x 16 inches
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

2CV sous la pluie, Paris, 1957

2CV sous la pluie, Paris, 1957
Modern gelatin-silver print, signed by the artist
Print size: 16 x 20 inches
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

Lower East Side, New York, 1955

Lower East Side, New York, 1955
Vintage gelatin-silver print, printed and signed by the artist
Print size: 8 x 11 inches
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

Montmartre,1953

Montmartre, 1953
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris

Une rue à Naples, 1955

Une rue à Naples, 1955
Modern gelatin-silver print, signed by the artist
Print size: 20 x 24 inches
© Sabine Weiss. Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris