Prague, Oct 8 (CTK) – An exhibition of American photographer of celebrities and film producer Sam Shaw (1912-1999), including his iconic shot of actress Marilyn Monroe with a “flying skirt” in New York, will be opened in Prague’ House of Photography on October 11, the organisers have announced.
Monroe’s famous photograph was taken during the shooting of film romance The Seven Year Itch (1955).
The display entitled “The Photographer of Stars” will run through January 15, 2017.
Shaw won fame with his photographs of film-makers and film stars, such as Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando.
His archive also includes portraits of other cultural personalities, such as artists Marc Chagall and Marcel Duchamp and playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.
Moreover, Shaw worked as a film producer. He cooperated, for instance, with film director John Cassavetes, who is considered the founder of American independent film.
Shaw’s over 50-year career started in Collier’s magazine for which he travelled around the United States documenting American life in the 1940s. Later on, he photographed the covers of Life and Look magazines.
In the 1950s, he drew attention to the world of cinema, making hundreds of portraits of film stars.
In the 1960s, Shaw devoted his time primarily to film production, but he never stopped photographing.
Shaw became a pioneer of the portrait genre thanks to his spontaneity and dynamics of his shots.
