Sabine Weiss has passed away. The Franco-Swiss photographer, a major representative of the French humanist school, died Tuesday at her home in Paris at the age of 97, her family and team announced on Wednesday. Born in Switzerland in 1924 and naturalized French in 1995, Sabine Weiss lived in Paris where she had set up her workshop on Boulevard Murat since 1949, her team told AFP.
Like Doisneau, Boubat, Willy Ronis or Izis, Sabine Weiss has immortalized the simple life of people, without however claiming any influence. A pioneer of post-war photography, she was also known for her fashion photos in Vogue. She said that a good photo “must touch, be well composed and stripped down. The sensitivity of people must be obvious ”.
Winner of the Women in Motion in 2020 Photography Prize, officially awarded in Arles in 2021, she has been the subject of some 160 exhibitions around the world.
An exhibition tribute to Venice in spring
A discreet personality, this bubbly woman of 1m55, denied having suffered from any “segregation” as a woman and wanted to establish “a constant dialogue” with her subject, considering photography as “a friendship”. She had walked with joy the Museon Arlaten in Arles last July at the last photography meetings, where her exhibition was presented: black and white photos, from the 1950s to today, mostly street scenes, portraits child beggars or street vendors, alley cats and popular balls.
More recently, Sabine Weiss went to the Planches-Contact festival in Deauville for a meeting with the public. The upcoming exhibition at Casa de Tre Oci in Venice from March 10 to October 25, 2022, will be a “tribute exhibition”, his team said.