Sabine Weiss retrospective at Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice

The Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice is hosting a major exhibition of photographer Sabine Weiss (1924–2021), curated by Virginie Chardin. The show brings together a large selection of her emotionally charged yet rigorous black-and-white and color images. Born in Saint-Gingolph, Switzerland, Weiss moved to Paris in the 1940s to pursue photography. She became one of the few independent female photographers of her era, working for international magazines and joining the Rapho agency after a 1952 assignment for Magnum documenting life in Dun-sur-Auron, a village hosting psychiatric patients. Her work spans reportage, fashion (Givenchy, Dior, Vogue in the 1950s), and portraits of artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle and Kees van Dongen. She also traveled extensively, including a 1955 trip to the United States that produced some of her most ironic images, rediscovered recently. Weiss refused the label of artist, prioritizing the act of shooting over post-production. Her husband, painter Hugh Weiss, noted that for her the excitement of capturing a series of images was paramount. Late in life, she entrusted her archives to the Musée Photo Elysée in Lausanne. The exhibition at Casa dei Tre Oci runs in 2022.