The new exhibition at Galerie de Buci pays tribute to photojournalism legend Stanley Greene (1949-2017). On the day of his birth, the gallery presents an exhibition entitled See You in My Dreams!, from Anna Shpakova‘s personal collection. As curator of the exhibition, she revealed to the public for the first time in France a selection of Polaroids taken between April and September 2001, accompanied by love letters from the photographer.
Known worldwide for his war reporting, Stanley Greene began as a painter, taking his photographs to piece together the scenes he painted. In 1971, he became an assistant to legendary photographer Eugene Smith who encouraged him to study photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York and the San Francisco Art Institute. Photographer of the American rock scene in the 1970s, fashion photographer in the 1980s, he only really started photojournalism in 1989 when his photo Kisses to all, the Berlin Wall became a symbol of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Winner of numerous awards such as five World Press Photo Awards, the W. Eugene Smith Fund Grant in 2004 and the Planet International Prize Albert Kahn (PIPAK), having worked for many major American titles, from the New York Times to Newsweek, Stanley Greene has truly found his audience in Europe, making documentary photography not only a means of communicating facts, but also of transmitting his thoughts and feelings about the events he witnessed. He died in Paris in 2017.
“The idea for the exhibition came to me at the very moment I learned of his death and the grief it caused gave me the desire to share with the whole world something special, sacramental, that you can’t hold back. Stanley Greene was an eminent master of the world, which he brought me into. As a passionate seeker of truth, a true romantic and poet, he showed me the beauty beyond thought, explains Anna. These letters and Polaroids became proof of romance at a time when we were oblivious to the fall of the world.”
15 Polaroids and several letters brought together for the occasion form a personal diary which shows another side of this great master of war photojournalism, showing us the sensitive and poetic nature of the man whose battles we followed.
For the exhibition See You in My Dreams! at the Galerie de Buci, curator Anna Shpakova presents this diary to us as an intention to recall memories and accept the death of a dear friend. This selection and the staging of the exhibition allow us to penetrate, without being voyeurs, into the intimacy of Stanley Greene’s singular rhythm.
This exhibition is a discovery for many or a rediscovery for some of a great photographer who knew how to be strong and weak, hard and gentle, but always on edge and without compromise with himself and his art.
Stanley Greene : See You in My Dreams!
February 14 – March 23, 2024
Galerie de Buci
73 rue de Seine
75006 Paris
www.buci.gallery
Galerie de Buci is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
