Chicago's Nelson Algren: Photographs by Art Shay

(Paperback)

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Description

Art Shay and Nelson Algren met in 1949, when Shay was a reporter for Life magazine. He followed Algren around with a camera, gathering pictures for a photo-essay piece he was pitching to the magazine. Life didn't pick up the article, but Shay and Algren became fast friends. Algren gave Shay's camera entrance into the back-alley world of Division Street, and Shay captured Algren's poetry on film. This is the compilation of hundreds of photos - many recently discovered and published here for the first time - that make up a moving homage to the writer and his city.

Reviews

Art Shay is an American original whose photography shakes you up, sets you down gently, pats you on the head, then kicks you in the ass. Roger Ebert

Author Bio

After flying fifty-three combat missions in World War II, ART SHAY joined Life magazine as a staff reporter. He went on to become one of Americas leading photojournalists. His pictures regularly appeared in Time, Fortune, the Saturday Evening Post, Forbes, Business Week, Parade and the New York Times Magazine. Shay immortalized some of Americas most compelling 20th century figures, including John F. Kennedy Jr. and Muhammad Ali, along with street scenes of Chicagos dispossessed. Several of these photographs have been noted as among the most enduring American pictures ever taken. Shay lives in Chicago.