RUTH ORKIN
Comic Book Readers, New York, 1947 , 1947
Gelatin Silver Print
16 x 29 in.
LOUIS FAURER
New York, NY, 1947 (profile head in window) printed 1980-8
Signed, titled & dated in pencil on verso , 1947
Gelatin Silver Print
8 x 10 in.
ESTHER BUBLEY
Coast to Coast, SONJ, 1947
Gelatin silver print; printed c.1947
Mounted. Photographer's credit in colored pencil and ”Standard
Oil Co (N.J.)” annotated in pencil on mount verso, 1947
6 1/2 x 10 in.
ANSEL ADAMS
Mudhills, Arizona
1947, printed 1970
Signed by the photographer and numbered V-2, 55/110 in an unknown hand in pencil on the mount, recto.
Gelatin Silver Print
14 3/4 x 19 5/8 in.
WAYNE MILLER
From ” The Way of Life of the Northern Negro,” Chicago (Afternoon Game at Table 2)
Later print Signed and annotated '764-1' with artist credit stamp on print verso, 1948
Gelatin Silver Print
10 1/16 x 12 15/16 in.
TONY VACCARO
Pix Theater, New York, 1947
Gelatin Silver Print, Ed. 2/10
17 x 22 in.
TED CRONER
Central Park South, 1947-1948/Printed 2003
Signed, titled, dated & numbered in pencil with the photographer's stamp on verso, 1947 - 1948
Gelatin Silver Print, Print #44
16 x 20 in.
WILLIAM GOTTLIEB
Frank Sinatra, Standing by Mic, 1947
Signed & titled in ink with artist stamp on verso , 1947
Gelatin Silver Print
18 7/8 x 15 3/8 in.
SAUL LEITER
Mary, c.1947
Signed in ink and numbered in pencil on print verso, 1947
Gelatin Silver; printed later
Edition #8/25
8 3/4 x 13 in.
REBECCA LEPKOFF
Midtown Manhattan, NYC, 1940s
Signed, titled, dated, and annotated in pencil on print verso, 1947
Gelatin silver print; printed later
6 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.
REBECCA LEPKOFF
Under the 3rd Ave. El, 1947
Mounted. Signed, titled, dated, and annotated in pencil on verso, 1947
Gelatin silver print; printed later
7 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON
Easter Sunday, Harlem, New York. Printed Later
Signed in ink on recto, 1947
Gelatin Silver Print
20 x 16 in.
HAROLD ROTH
Williamsburg Bridge, 1947
Signed, titled, and dated with photographer's copyright stamp on print verso
Gelatin silver print; printed later
19 1/2 x 15 5/8 in.
GJON MILI
Female vocalist entertains patrons at Cafe Society
Downtown, NYC, 1947
Photographer's stamp, Used in LIFE stamp dated ”DEC 15 1947”, numeric stamp, Time Inc. copyright stamp, and annotations in pencil on print verso
Gelatin silver print; printed c.1947
13 3/8 x 10 1/2 in.
IDA WYMAN
Looking East on 41st Street, New York, 1947
Gelatin Silver Print
20 x 16 in.
MAX YAVNO
Corner of Eddy and Franklin, San Francisco, 1947
Gelatin Silver Print, printed later
10 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (26.7 x 34.3 cm)
FERENC BERKO
Fire Escape, Chicago, 1947
Photographer's negative number ”1018-12” and Estate number ”1368-1” in pencil on print verso, 1947
Early gelatin silver print
7 5/8 x 7 3/4 in.
ESTHER BUBLEY
Greyhound Terminal, NYC, 1947
signed, titled, and dated in pencil with title, date and annotations in an unknown hand in pencil on print verso, 1947
Gelatin silver print; printed c.1947
9 1/8 x 13 7/16 in.
ESTHER BUBLEY
Passengers from Buffalo-bound bus at rest stop near Bath, NY, 1947
Mounted. Photographer's credit stamp on mount verso, 1947
Gelatin silver print; printed c.1947
7 3/8 x 9 7/8 in.
BRETT WESTON
Brownstone in the Fifties
1947, printed 1951
Signed in pencil on the reverse of the mount
New York portfolio Print No. 3 stamped on the reverse of the mount, 1947
Gelatin Silver Print
9 1/2 x 7 5/8 in.
Sous Les Etoiles Gallery is pleased to present «1947, Simone de Beauvoir in America» a photographic journey inspired by her diary «America Day by Day» published in France in 1948. This book was released in the United States in 1999 after its first translation to English in Great Britain in 1952.
This exhibition curated by Corinne Tapia, director of Sous Les Etoiles Gallery, aims to illustrate the depiction of De Beauvoir’s encounter with America at the time. It is the first time that this book becomes the subject of an exhibition.
In January of 1947, the French writer and intellectual, Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) landed in New York’s La Guardia Airport, beginning a four-month journey across America. She traveled from East to the West coast by trains, cars and even Greyhound buses. She has recounted her travels in her personal diary and recorded every experience with minute detail. She stayed 116 days, traveling through 19 states and 49 cities.
“The Second Sex”, published in 1949, became a reference in the feminist movement but has certainly masked the talent of diarist of Simone de Beauvoir. Careful observer, endowed with a chiseled and precise writing style, traveling was a central guidance of the existential experience of S. de Beauvoir: a woman with an infinite curiosity, a thirst for experiencing and discovering everything. In 1929, she made her first trips to Spain, Italy and England with her lifelong partner, the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1947, she made, this time alone, her first trip to the United States, a trip that would have change her life: “Usually, traveling is an attempt to annex a new object to my universe; this in itself is an undertaking: but today it’s different. I feel I’m leaving my life behind. I don’t know if it will be through anger or hope, but something is going to be revealed – a world so full, so rich and so unexpected that I have the extraordinary adventure of becoming a different of me.”
After WWII, in 1947, and in the context of the Cold War, the United States took the lead of the “free world”, while Europe was just beginning to recover from its wounds. Invited by the cultural services of the French Embassy, Simone de Beauvoir conducted a series of conferences on existentialism in American universities. “America Day by Day is at the same time a book of travel, of politics and sociology on this time period,” explains Corinne Tapia. In fact, De Beauvoir decorticates everything she sees, immersing herself in the New World. She seems completely open and determined to explore the vertigo of New York, to be enchanted by the beauty of the landscape of Arizona, to examine the segregation in the South, to be amazed by Chicago through her encounter with Nelson Algreen and intrigued by the obsession of College girls to seek a husband.
It is also most certainly a very photographic book. As you read it, you can easily imagine the footsteps of Simone de Beauvoir in places she discovers for the first time, the atmosphere of the night, of the cabarets and their music of this peri-od, impressed by the American way of life that begins to take effect.” I wanted the viewer to be as close to her reality at that time, so most of the photographs exhibited are in the year of 1947”, said Corinne Tapia. Their shades and different tones catch the spontaneous energy of the everyday American life.
Much of the photographers were street photographers working often for publications like Life Magazine, Ted Croner with his haunting night photography, Louis Faurer and his double exposure, Ferenc Berko giving an abstract geometry to Chicago, Wayne Miller and his daily life series about the black community in Chicago, Esther Bubley with her Bus Series… This exhibition includes also the works by Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Morris Engel, William Gottlieb, Sid Grossman, Sy Kattelson, Saul Leiter, Rebecca Lepkoff, Fred Lyon, Wayne Miller, Gjon Mili, Ruth Orkin, Arnold Roth, Art Shay, Fred Stein, Tony Vaccaro, Todd Webb, Brett Weston, Ida Wyman, and Max Yavno.
