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Art Shay is a great photographer. His work over the past 50 years has artfully captured the beauty, humor and pathos of America. Studs Terkel says, “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 says, “Algren, Terkel, Royko, they gave us a voice. Art Shay gave us a face.” Tony Fitzpatrick, Chicago artist says, “Art Shay is America’s Cartier-Bresson.” Tom Dyja, author of The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream says, “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 says, “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 says, “Art Shay is the best photo-journalist Chicago ever produced.” Arthur Siegel, photographer; IIT Institute of Design President says, “I have one of Art Shay’s pictures over my desk. It reminds me every morning of my Chicago roots. Arts photos, like me, have the Chicago accent, which may be to say he’s telling you the truth. I think it takes a realist to see the humor in things. I know it takes a realist to see the depths of tragedy. Shay’s work is so real it feels like a Madison Street guy tapping me on the forearm,” says David Mamet.

The first permanent image created by a camera — which materialized during the 1820s — is attributed to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The French inventor was on to something for sure. Kodak introduced roll film in the 1880s, allowing photography to become more democratic, although cameras wouldn’t be universally accessible until several decades later. 

Digital photographic techniques, software, smartphone cameras and social-networking platforms such as Instagram have made it even easier in the modern era for budding photographers to capture the world around them as well as disseminate their images far and wide. 

What might leading figures of visual art such as Andy Warhol have done with these tools at their disposal?

Today, when we aren’t looking at the digital photos that inundate us on our phones, we look to the past to celebrate the photographers who have broken rules as well as records — provocative and prolific artists like Horst P. Horst, Lillian Bassman and Helmut Newton, who altered the face of fashion and portrait photography; visionary documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks, whose best-known work was guided by social justice; and pioneers of street photography such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who shot for revolutionary travel magazines like Holiday with the likes of globetrotting society lensman Slim Aarons.

Find photographers you may not know in Introspective and The Study — where you’ll read about Berenice Abbott, who positioned herself atop skyscrapers for the perfect shot, or “conceptual artist-adventurer” Charles Lindsay, whose work combines scientific rigor with artistic expression, or Massimo Listri, known for his epic interiors of opulent Old World libraries.

Throughout the past two centuries, photographers have used their medium to create expressive work that has resonated for generations. Shop a voluminous collection of this powerful photography on 1stDibs. Search by photographer to find the perfect piece for your living room wall, or spend some time with the work organized under various categories, such as landscape photography, nude photography and more.