Valentine's Day: Photographs tell story of decades-long romance

Via CBS Evening News

Ninety-one-year-old Art Shay has been telling stories with his camera for 60 years. Working mostly for LIFE Magazine, he captured an amazing roster of subjects, from Kennedy to Ali; from Eleanor Roosevelt to Elizabeth Taylor. (Slide show here)

 The first photo Art Shay took of Florence.

Art Shay

Asked if Florence would ever say, “Would you put that camera away, for God’s sake?” Shay says, “Yes, many times.”

 

Art Shay CBS News

                                       

 “And, you know, the litany of all true photographers is, ‘Just one more,’” he laughs.

“A photograph is a biography of a moment.”

Strung together, they chart a lifetime.

The photos of their love story are now on display at Columbia College in Chicago. The exhibit is called “My Florence,” a tribute to their 67 years of marriage.

Shay says it makes him feel closer to Florence. He says the last picture he took of her that is featured in the show was captured four weeks before she died.

Florence would have been 92 on Valentine’s Day.

Art Shay's favorite photo of Florence.

Art Shay

Shay says that when she got sick, “I assigned myself to do her life as I remembered it -- with the joy, the happiness and only a touch -- a touch of her sickness.”

Florence passed away from cancer in August 2012. Art says gathering the photos for the show has helped him heal, though not entirely.

It’s very hard to do,” Art says tearfully as he looks at one of the photos. “She did like this picture a lot.”

“Florence did say, ‘Don’t cry for me when the time comes, because I had a wonderful life,’” he says. “And she did. And we did.”

The evidence is right there in the pictures.

© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved


Related: The Photography of Love


Art Shay's photograph of Hugh Hefner in His Office Bedroom at Chicago Mansion, 1967  is in the exhibition "When Cool Was King".

A Very Cool Valentine's Day

Sid Avery: Stars of "Oceans 11" Stage a Fight, 1960

Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present “When Cool Was King”, an exhibition featuring photographs from a time when cool reigned supreme. The exhibition opens with a public reception on Valentine's Day, Friday, February 14, from 5 - 7, and continues through April 20.

In their book "COOL: An Anatomy of an Attitude", Dick Pountain and David Robins ask "So what exactly is Cool? That is a difficult question to answer. Is it a philosophy, a sensibility, a religion, an ideology, a personality type, a behavior pattern, an attitude, a worldview?" The exhibition does not attempt to answer that question, but simply accepts Cool as a phenomenon that we can recognize when we see it.

Concurrently, an exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery, "American Cool", asks: "What do we mean when we say someone is cool? Cool carries a social charge of rebellious self-expression, charisma, edge and mystery."

The exhibition featuring portraits of iconic figures of Cool, such as: Steve McQueen, James Dean, Andy Warhol, the Rat Pack, 1960's-era Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Marianne Faithful, Nico and the Velvet Underground, Elvis Presley, each of whom has contributed an original artistic vision to American culture symbolic of a particular historical moment.

See the exhibit on-line here.

VALENTINE'S DAY 2013

Ken Regan: Equal Rights March on Washington, "Kiss-In", April, 1993

 

 

 

Related: Happy Valentine's Day 2011

 

VALENTINE'S DAY 2012

<><>

Vivian Maier: New York, 1954

<><>

Grey Villet: Richard and Mildred Loving laughing and watching television in their living room,

King and Queen County, Virginia, 1965

 HBO: The Loving Story Tuesday, February 14 at 9 PM (check local listings)


The New York Times: Scenes From a Marriage That Segregationists Tried to Break Up

Time Light Box: The Loving Story: Loving v. Virginia and the Photographs of Grey Villet

Washington Post: Virginia’s Caroline County, ‘symbolic of Main Street USA’

Slide show:
About 6 percent of Caroline Middle School’s population is multiracial, a statistic that would not be possible without Mildred and Richard Loving, a couple from the school’s county whose Supreme Court case 45 years ago paved the way for mixed-race marriages

Mother Jones: The Loving Story: How One Interracial Couple Changed a Nation

Entertainment Weekly:  A Moving Tale Of Love And Civil Rights

Grey Villet: The Lovings




Related: Happy Valentine's Day 2011

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY 2011

Richard C. Miller: Kirk Douglas and Jane Simmons' Double, Spartacus 1959

Ernst Haas: The Kiss, Grand Central Station, NY, 1958

Harry Benson: Berlin Kiss, 1996




Mick Rock: Lou Reed and David Bowie, Cafe Royal, London, 1973

Ted Allen: Jean Harlow kissing Robert Taylor, 1937

Every February 14, across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where did these traditions come from? Find out about the history of this centuries-old holiday, from ancient Roman rituals to the customs of Victorian England. (History.com)

SOME OF OUR FAVORITES FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

Happy Valentine's Day!

Robert Doisneau: Le Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville, Paris, 1950

Harry Benson: Berlin Kiss, Berlin, 1996

Ernst Haas:  The Kiss, Grand Central Station, NYC

Ted Allen: Jean Harlow and Robert Taylor, 1937

Mick Rock: Lou Reed and David Bowie, Cafe Royal, London, 1973

Willy Ronis: Les Amoureux de la Colonne Bastille, 1957

Carl Iwasaki: Kissing In The Kitchen

Steve Schapiro: "I Love Anybody", Migrant Camp, Arkansas, 1961