Peter Byrne in Swans Commentary reviewed Art Shay's newest book, Chicago's Nelson Algren (see photo of book cover in top left corner of this blog). From the Byrne review:
Of course Shay respects the first rule of his profession and keeps out of the picture. But that doesn't mean he's invisible. His face is everywhere, like Paul Cezanne's on all those views of Mont Sainte Victoire or Damien Hirst's on his lumps of dead meat under glass. Forget Christopher Isherwood's neat, wrong-headed motto: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording not thinking." Art Shay is no comatose, submissive, gawking never-closed shutter. He obtained his first published photos by being on the qui vive, outwitting a superior officer and outthinking mechanical contrivances. Flying back to Britain in 1944 from a mission over Europe, Shay saw two bombers about to collide above him and had to fight off a rules-and-regulations fanatic to get his shots.
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