From The Vault Of Art Shay: A Few Of My Favorite Images

By Art Shay in News on Aug 15, 2013 3:00PM

The first one is the action portrait I made of my late wife Florence the summer she was 19—in 1941 at our summer camp. This is the first picture I ever made of her- and will be the cover of my book on our 67 years of marriage, called: "My Florence." In tears, I took my last picture of her at her funeral. She was still beautiful at 90.

One of my 60 books was called <em>What Happens When You Travel by Plane.</em> It was an essay on my own family flying to Disneyland. Before our 747 took off, my son Steve, peered into the dark engine nacelle and I captured a moment of childish curiosity one art critic called, "A strong juxtaposition of two similar shapes." Well, duh. I recognized the relationship of the two, er, compositional units.

My classic "Kill Shot."

In an Ashland Avenue all-night beautorium, some artificial bimbos show off the latest hairdos while a nice chubby lady in her 60s gets her hair set under a spaceship fryer for her daughter's Polish wedding. Simone de Beauvoir hung the picture in her bedroom.

A glazier momentarily setting a glass replacement panel at rest gave me the reflection of the old lady and the title "Two, Possibly Three Ages of Woman."

A placid dog transmogrifies into a fierce cat with help from a distorted mirror.

The Supremes, angry with a Motown exec, calm down in Berry Gordy's waiting room.

(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. This week, Art looks back at some of his favorite photos.)

The best, busiest, most modest and priciest commercial photographer in Chicago is called Sandro. Some of his accounts are the government of China (who use his intimate couples pictures to decorate all their bus kiosks) and Nikon, for whom he portrayed a speeding motorcyclist in minimal light that still mystifies some Sports Illustrated headliners.

I will be doing a blog on Sandro as soon as he settles into imminent marriage with his gorgeous bride-to-be Claudé. He has such great taste in pictures that he collects some of mine. I was, posing for my next book jacket in Sandro's studio and we were discussing the kinds of pictures we liked.

I was actually lobbying for one hiding my double chin, which he managed to do masterfully, but in general an eavesdropper of two guys who have sold about a half-million pictures , would learn the principal lesson of photography: Shoot what you like .If you like it ,editors and other ordinary people will too. That's it.

Published with permission

If you can't wait until this time every Wednesday to get your Art Shay fix, please check out the photographer's blog, which is updated regularly. Art Shay's book, Chicago's Nelson Algren, is also available at Amazon.