• New SFA Homepage Featuring Marlon Brando


    January 7, 2014

    For 2014, we're featuring a Sam Shaw photo of Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn playing pool off-set during the shooting of Viva Zapata! (1951). This year marks both the 10th anniversary of Brando's death and the 90th anniversary of his birth!

  • Holiday Mailer Honoring John Cassavetes


    January 1, 2014

    This year for Shaw Family Archives' annual holiday mailer we created a tribute to four decades of Sam Shaw and John Cassavetes' films and friendship. The front of the mailer features a photograph of Shaw and Cassavetes filming a scene from A Woman Under the Influence (1974), along with a quote by Cassavetes about his work with Shaw. The back of the mailer is a collage of Sam Shaw's photographs and a timeline of important Shaw/Cassavetes' collaborations.

  • Japanese Magazine Celebrates John Cassavetes


    December 16, 2013

    The Japanese love John Cassavetes. And so do we. In 1990, the Tokyo magazine Switch featured more than 40 Sam Shaw photographs for their special issue on the life and work of Cassavetes. Over 20 years later Shaw Family Archives collaborated again with our Japanese friends for another feature on Cassavetes in honor of the upcoming 25th anniversary of his death in 2014 -- this time in Coyote magazine. Above are both magazine covers.

  • Husbands Holiday Card from the Archive


    November 20, 2013

    In 1969 Sam Shaw's daughter Edie Shaw Marcus designed this holiday card mailer for John Cassavetes to promote his film Husbands (1970). "The Freedom to be Free" is a line from the film and the photo series of John Cassavetes, Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara was taken by Sam Shaw, who was also the associate producer of the film.

  • APAG Launches New Website


    October 15, 2013

    The American Photography Archives Group (APAG) has launched a new website. The site features a section for member Sam Shaw here, as well as many other great photographers including Ruth Orkin, Philippe Halsman, and Ernst Haas. For a complete list of members see: http://www.apag.us/membership/

  • Chagall Exhibition at the Jewish Museum


    September 10, 2013

    Chagall: Love, War, and Exile opens at The Jewish Museum in New York on September 15. The exhibit focuses on Marc Chagall's period in exile in Paris and the US during the 1930s through 1948. The curators used the above portrait of Marc and Bella Chagall taken by Sam Shaw for the artist timeline accompanying the show. Sam took the photo at Cranberry Lake for a 1944 Collier's Weekly article entitled "Art for Profits Sake" that he co-wrote with Harry Henderson. They wrote about a group of French artists who came to the US (mostly New York) to escape WWII and were doing quite well (monetarily). Other artists featured/photographed in the piece include Fernand Leger, Moise Kisling, Amedee Ozenfant, Kurt Seligmann, Jacques Lipchitz, Andre Masson, and Bernard Lamotte.

  • Albert Murray, Essayist, Friend, Collaborator, Dies at 97


    August 21, 2013

    Sam Shaw's friend and collaborator, the remarkable Albert Murray, passed away this week at the age of 97. Murray, Shaw and the artist Romare Bearden were creators of an unpublished project known as "Paris Blues" or "Jazz Suite", using the 1961 film Paris Blues (which Shaw produced) as inspiration. In the 1980s the trio retold the black-artist-in-Paris tale using Shaw's photographs, Murray's writing, and Bearden's collages. Together they portrayed a story of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong in Paris, as well as the musical centers of New Orleans and New York--and the underlying search for freedom through artistic expression.

  • Jeruasalem Film Festival 30th Anniversary


    July 1, 2013

    The Jerusalem Film Festival chose this Sam Shaw photograph of Natalie Wood to promote the 30th anniversary of the festival. The festival runs from July 4th through July 13th.

  • Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie Interviewed for Sam Shaw Documentary


    June 5, 2013

    Shaw Family Archives recently interviewed rock legends Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of the band Blondie for the Sam Shaw film project. In 1977, just before their breakthrough album Parallel Lines was released, Sam Shaw directed and produced a documentary about Blondie. His friend John Cassavetes was the cameraman. It was great fun speaking to Deborah and Chris about their collaboration with Sam and John.

    Pictured above: Sam Shaw's grand daughter Melissa Stevens, Sam Shaw's daughters Edie Shaw Marcus and Meta Shaw Stevens, Chris Stein and Deborah Harry.

  • Stella McCartney T-Shirt Featuring Sam Shaw Photo


    May 10, 2013

    Kate Moss, Rihanna and even Miss Piggy are sporting the latest Stella McCartney t-shirt featuring a Marilyn Monroe photograph by Sam Shaw. The shirt was designed for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day, the largest charity initiative in the UK.

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