Art Shay

Two Leopards Spotted, Chicago 1974, Brookfield Zoo, Signed and Framed.

2017

Street Photography was a true love of Art Shay as is clearly evident in this 1949 Vintage Photo of a street transaction. The photograph is matted and framed in a simple black metal ...

“Art Shay’s photography shakes you up, sets you down gently, pats you on the head and then kicks you in the ass.” Roger Ebert “[Shay’s work] ranks with some of the greats of the 20...

This iconic photo of Bruce Jenner (aka Caitlyn Jenner) is at the moment of his decathlon win at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The photographer, Art Shay, s...

This vintage silver gelatin print from Art Shay shows a football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions. Famed GB quarterback No. ...

Two-Time World Middleweight champion Tony Zale was know as the Man of Steel. He left the ring in 1948 and is shown here coaching youth in Chicago. The p...

Art Shay Brooklyn: Sisters, 1952 silver gelatin print 24.25 x 20.25 framed ASY103 Art Shay photographed the community of Brooklyn, IL for Ebony Magazine, 1952. These photographs are the result of that experience. Brooklyn (popularly known as Lovejoy), is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. Located two miles north of East St. Louis, Illinois and three miles northeast of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, it is the oldest town incorporated by African Americans in the United States. It was founded by freed and fugitive slaves from St. Louis, led by "Mother" Priscilla Baltimore in the period of 1829 to 1839. Its motto is "Founded by Chance, Sustained by Courage". “Art Shay’s photography shakes you up, sets you down gently, pats you on the head and then kicks you in the ass.” Roger Ebert “[Shay’s work] ranks with some of the greats of the 20th century.” Ellen & Richard Sandor, Renowned photo collectors “I’ve admired Art Shay’s work for almost forty years, and he keeps getting better. He can do anything with a camera, but what he mostly does is capture real moments and transform them into visual poetry. His work continues to be an inspiration to me.” William Friedkin, Director of French Connection “Art Shay is one of our finest photographers. His work over the past fifty years has artfully captured the beauty, humor, and pathos of America.” Studs Terkel “Art Shay is one of the best photojournalists I know. I’ve been a fan of his work since the early 1950s - before the launch of playboy magazine.” Hugh Hefner Algren, Terkel, Royko, they gave us a voice. Art Shay gave us a face.” Tony Fitzpatrick, Chicago Artist “Art Shay is America’s Cartier-Bresson.” Thomas Dyja, author of The Third Coast “Chicago’s Art Shay in many ways is to American photography what Nelson Algren was to American writing: that rare and absolutely necessary citizen who’s blessed with a cold eye, a clear head, and a warm heart. What is it about Chicago that keeps giving us men like this?” Russell Banks, Novelist “The best images of Simone de Beauvoir and her times have been passed down to us by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gisele Freund, Robert Doisneau, Georges Brassai, and in America, the Chicago-based Art Shay, all world-class photographers.” Christophe Loviny, Art Editor, Paris “Art Shay is the best photo-journalist Chicago ever produced.” Arthur Siegel...

Inspired by the geometric paintings by Cuban artist Carmen Herrera and minimalist photography, a rare one of a kind gelatin silver print, toned with sepia/selenium toned and printed by hand in a traditional darkroom using...

Rare one of a kind silver gelatin lith print on foma paper of a Cuban man grinding coffee in a tree stump. Contemporary documentary photograph, taken in Santiago De Cuba. Shot on medium format film and printed by hand in a traditional photo darkroom. Cuban coffee...

A camera is a window through which a photographer interacts with the world, and it's up to the operator to decide whether his camera will be a barrier or a mirror between he and his subjects. In the 1970s, Michael Abramson chose the latter path when he brought his camera to Pepper's Hideout on Chicago's South Side. Following in the footsteps of his acknowledged influence Gyula Halász, a Hungarian photographer better known as Brassaï who became the pre-eminent chronicler of the Paris nightlife he loved so much, Abramson initiated himself into the nightlife of Chicago's predominantly black neighbourhoods. He was very much a part of the scene he documented on film, drinking, laughing, and dancing with his subjects into small hours and becoming as much a part of the atmosphere as the locals who frequented the same nightspots he did. - Joe Tangari (Numero Group, 2009) This series won Abramson a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978 and launched his career as a photojournalist. Eventually the project resulted in a hardbound book, Light: On the South Side, including the Grammy and Mojo nominated album, featuring Chicago blues...

"Abramson comes much closer to recording the sound of these clubs than we would have any right to expect from a photographer." - Nick Hornby (London, 2009), Light On the South Side, ...

Larry Fink (American, born 1941). "Lovers in Doorway" - late 20th century, silver gelatin photograph print, signed "Larry Fink" to lower right and numbered ...

The history of photography has always included the genre of the nude. In the last decade, there is a new perspective in considering the female form. Women photographers are able to c...