Clippings from New York – Portfolio 1
Living in NY, I never leave home without my camera because the city is such a fantastic source of images. This is how I was able to accumulate over the years a vast library of photographs.
I can therefore submit to you a portfolio of images that present my personal, visual and aesthetic narrative of the city, as would a collection of carefully gleaned magazine clippings that tell the story of a place everyone knows something about.
I was born in Cairo, Egypt. At the ripe age of seventeen, having completed my secondary studies, I boarded a ship for Marseille.
After a stint at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, I packed my bags and headed for photography school in Vevey, Switzerland. I completed a six-month course and got myself hired by the French magazine Marie-Claire in Paris.
I moved to New York in 1961, home sick and heartbroken, with two hundred dollars in my pocket as my stake in a new life in America.
After a while assisting other photographers I decided on a radical career change, a different path forward: I needed to make a living. I chose Branding and Design. Things went well enough after that.
Years have passed and, now free from having to think in terms of income and survival, I am back to doing what makes my blood run. It took a while, but I am finally there.
My photobook “The Simplicity of the Moment” was rated as one of the best of 2017 by Elizabeth Avedon.
Raphael Shammaa
