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Art Shay (March 31, 1922 – April 28, 2018) was an American photographer and writer.


Biography

Born in 1922, Shay grew up in
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...
and then served as a
navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...
in the
U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, during which he flew 52 bomber missions. Shay joined the staff of ''Life'' magazine as a writer, and quickly became a
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
-based freelance photographer for ''Life'', ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'', ''
Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice ...
'', 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 National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...
and
The Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and list of largest art museums, largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visit ...
. He enjoyed working out with his friend purple aki 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 Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even ...
(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 Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialist, existentialism (and Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter ...
, 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 2014 documentary by Montrose Pictures, ''Algren -The Movie'', featured over 100 new Algren images from Shay's collection. Shay published more than 75 books on various subjects. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he wrote two series of photography illustrated children's books published by
Reilly & Lee The Reilly and Britton Company, known after 1918 as Reilly & Lee, was an American publishing company of the early and middle 20th century, best known for children's and popular culture books from authors like L. Frank Baum and Edgar A. Guest. Found ...
. 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 comedy titled ''A Clock for Nikita'' was produced and ran at the Stagelight Theater in
Buffalo Grove, Illinois Buffalo Grove, officially the Village of Buffalo Grove, is a Village (United States)#Illinois, village in Lake County, Illinois, Lake and Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of Downtown Chi ...
, from April 7 to May 3, 1964. His 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 Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street at the in ...
: "The Essential Art Shay: Selected Photographs." In 2008, The
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contempora ...
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 Northbrook Court is a shopping mall in Northbrook, Illinois with a collection of stores serving the North Shore suburbs of Chicago. Located on of land, the mall currently features Neiman Marcus as well as a handful of popular specialty stores ...
Mall in Northbrook, Illinois, Shay chronicled life at the mall. He also worked on a project on the life of
The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chambe ...
'
Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band th ...
. Since the end of 2010, Shay wrote a weekly photography blog "From the Vault of Art Shay" on
Chicagoist Gothamist LLC is the operator, or in some cases franchisor, of eight city-centric websites that focused on news, events, food, culture, and other local coverage. It was founded in 2003 by Jake Dobkin and Jen Chung. In March 2017, Joe Ricketts, ...
. On February 2, 2015, Seven Stories Press published Shay's final book, ''My Florence'', a picture book chronicling his late wife Florence's life in 20th-century Chicago. Shay died in April 2018, at the age of 96, in Deerfield, Illinois, from heart failure.Playboy illustrator Art Paul, 93, and photographer Art Shay, 96, have died — both giants of 20th century Chicago
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Bibliography

* ''My Florence'' (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2015).


References


External links



* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070315055256/http://photography.about.com/b/a/133581.htm Pageon Art Shay at '' about.com''
Exhibition Online
Art Shay Virtual Exhibition at wizardgallery.com

Collection of links and reviews of Art Shay's work * Stephen Daiter Gallery, artist listin

work of Art Shay * Report: Photographer Art Shay hired to document Corgan, Pumpkin

* Photojournalist: Art Shay - WTTW - Aired February 10, 201

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shay, Art 1922 births 2018 deaths United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II American photographers People from Deerfield, Illinois United States Army Air Forces officers Writers from the Bronx Photographers from the Bronx Military personnel from Illinois