Sabine Weiss: The Poetry of the Instant

Like Robert Doisneau and Brassai, she shot life in postwar Paris as it really was. -Clay Risen, New York Times

Swiss French black-and-white photographer Sabine Weiss (1924-2021) lived and worked for more than 70 years at her home in Paris, which today houses the archive of her entire body of work. The Poetry of the Instant delves into Weiss’s archive, presenting a selection of over 200 of her photographs including reportages, portraits (of Brigitte Bardot, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Niki de Saint Phalle, Andre Breton, Kees van Dongen, Robert Rauschenberg and Alberto Giacometti, among others) and fashion shoots for top magazines such as the New York Times Magazine, Life, Time, Newsweek, Vogue, Paris Match and Esquire. In an essay accompanied by illustrations from historical documents and magazines, curator Virginie Chardin chronicles Weiss’s life and career. Curator and art director Denis Curti also contributes an essay, analyzing the relationship between the French humanist photographers that were Weiss’ contemporaries (Doisneau, Brassai, Cartier-Bresson) and Italian neorealism, as expressed in Weiss’ oeuvre.