“I
am an introverted soul who is trapped in this extroverted mind.” Rezarusandi
Photos by Art Shay, Chicago 1994
Art Shay is an American
photographer and writer. Born in 1922, he grew up in the Bronx and then served
as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, during which he
flew 52 bomber missions.
Shay joined the staff of Life
magazine as a writer, and quickly became a Chicago-based freelance photographer
for Life, Time, Sports Illustrated and other national publications. He
photographed seven US Presidents and many major figures of the 20th century.
Shay also wrote weekly columns for various newspapers, several plays,
children's books, sports instruction books and several photo essay books.
Shay's photography is sold at
galleries and is in permanent collections of major museums including the
National Portrait Gallery and The Art Institute of Chicago.
Shay's long friendship with the
writer Nelson Algren led to the publication of Shay's Nelson Algren's Chicago.
Shay and Algren met in 1949 and collaborated on many projects, including photos
and an essay for Holiday Magazine that Algren later turned into his book
Chicago, City on the Make. Shay took well-known pictures of Simone de Beauvoir
(nude and portrait) when she visited Chicago to be with Algren,.
Shay wrote a play about
Algren's triangle relationship with de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre which had
a stage reading in Chicago in 1999. Another collection of Shay's work with
Nelson Algren is featured in Shay's 2007 Book Chicago's Nelson Algren published
by Seven Stories Press. The upcoming documentary by Montrose Pictures
Algren--The Movie will feature over 100 new Algren images from Shay's
collection.
Shay has published more than 75
books on various subjects. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Shay wrote two
series of photography illustrated children's books published by Reilly &
Lee. Shay's What It's Like to Be A .. series of books explained various
occupations including a doctor, fireman, pilot, policeman, nurse, teacher,
dentist, musician and a TV producer.
Shay's What Happens.. series of
books explained concepts such as what happens when you build a house, spend
money, turn on a light and turn on the gas. Other books in Shay's "What
Happens.." series included what happens at the zoo, at a gas station, at a
newspaper, at an animal hospital, at the circus, in a skyscraper, at the state
fair and at a weather station. In 2002, The University of Illinois Press
published Shay's photographic essays, Animals, and in 2003, Couples.
Shay's play titled A Clock for
Nikita was produced and ran at the Stagelight Theater in 1964. Shay's 2000
autobiography is titled Album for an Age: Unconventional Words and Pictures
from the 20th Century. In 2002, the American Theater Company in Chicago staged
Shay's autobiographical play, Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Stewart?, directed by Mike
Nussbaum.
In 2007, Shay had his first
major retrospective of his black and white photographs which ran for six months
at the Chicago History Museum: "The Essential Art Shay: Selected
Photographs."
In 2008, The Museum of
Contemporary Art, Chicago held an exhibit of photographs titled Art Shay:
Chicago Accent which included pieces from between 1949 and 1968 of Shay's work
while working with Algren of Chicago's "underclass."
In 2010, Chicago's Thomas
Master's Gallery featured Shay's first show of exclusively his color
photography "Art Shay: True Colors." In 2012, Shay was inducted into
the National Racquetball Hall of Fame.
Since the opening in 1976 of
Northbrook Court Mall in Northbrook, Illinois, Shay has been chronicling life
at the mall. Shay is also working on a project on the life of The Smashing
Pumpkins' Billy Corgan. Since the end of 2010, Shay has been writing a weekly
photography blog "From the Vault of Art Shay" on Chicagoist.
On February 2, 2015, Seven
Stories Press published Shay's newest book My Florence, a picture book
chronicling his late wife Florence's life in twentieth century Chicago.
