Image © Richard Shay
Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of
Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to present a major exhibition of photographs
from one of America’s most
accomplished photographers, Art Shay. The exhibit of 50 photographs
opens Friday, October 6 with a public reception from 5 – 7 PM, and continues
through November 19.
For over 70 years, Art Shay has
documented life, combining his gifts of storytelling, humor and empathy. The
Lucie Awards is the premiere annual event honoring the greatest achievements in
photography. Art Shay will be honored with the Lucie statue for Lifetime
Achievement during the Lucie Awards gala ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York
October 29, 2017. Below is the announcement from the Lucie Foundation.
ART SHAY
2017 Honoree, Lifetime Achievement
“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
Art Shay was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1922. During
World War II, he was lead navigator on 30 missions in the Eighth Air Force. His
service, which also include 23 combat supplies missions, earned him five Air
Medals, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Croix de Guerre. He is
credited with shooting down one Focke Wulf 190, a German fighter plane.
Shay has pursued photography since his teens, and he took his
first Leica to war with him. His first published photographs—documenting a mid
air collision over his English Air Base—were printed in a September 1944 issue
of Look magazine. Upon returning to civilian life, Shay wrote Sunday
features for the Washington Post before becoming a staff reporter
for Life magazine. In San Francisco at age 26, he became Life’s
youngest bureau chief. His specialty was story ideas and he wrote text and
captions for photographers such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Peter Stackpole, Wallace
Kirkland and Francis Miller.
Shay moved to Chicago in late 1948. A longtime fan of
literature, he befriended novelist Nelson Algren, the winner of the first
National Book Award for Fiction. Throughout the 1950s, they wandered Chicago
documenting Algren’s “rusty heart” neighborhoods. In 1951, Shay left his staff
position at Life magazine and became a freelance photographer. He found success
shooting for major magazines including Life, Time, Fortune, Ebony, Sports
Illustrated, The Saturday Evening Post and The New York Times Magazine.
Shay earned a reputation for getting the shots editors wanted. As former editor
of Lifeand Fortune Roy Rowan put it, “Art Shay’s extraordinary
talent lies in capturing the human spirit of all those who come before his
lens.”
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