Harold Feinstein, the rebirth of a photography prodigy! The Galerie Thierry Bigaignon presents, for the first time in Europe, an exceptional retrospective of the work of the American photographer Harold Feinstein, born in New York in 1931 and died in June 2015. It was in 1946, at the age of 15 years, that Harold Feinstein embarked on photography. Four years later, Edward Steichen, then curator of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, bought him one of his photographs and made him the youngest photographer to join the museum's permanent collection. 65 years later, he still holds this “record”! A member of the Photo League alongside Sid Grossman from the age of 17, and an important figure in the New York avant-garde of street photography, he exhibited at the Limelight Gallery of Helen Gee and contributed to the design of Blue Note Records. He is one of the original inhabitants of the legendary "Jazz Loft" in New York, where he meets W. Eugene Smith, actively collaborating with him on the model of the famous Pittsburg Project. W. Eugene Smith will say of Harold Feinstein: "He is one of the few photographers that I have known or who have influenced me, to be able to reveal from a superbly new angle, with so much force and honesty. , which for me is ordinary ”. A worthy representative of the "New York School of Photography", Harold Feinstein spanned nearly six decades, a period during which he strove to make an intimate portrait of an exuberant and vital America. First exhibited in 1954 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Harold Feinstein's photographs have long been part of prestigious private collections and permanent collections of major American museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center. of Photography, the Museum of Photographic Arts or the Museum of the City of New York. However, Harold Feinstein remains unrecognized in Europe. And Thierry Bigaignon to add: "Harold is one of the very greatest who, like Vivian Maier (discovered after his death) or Jacques-Henri Lartigue (discovered at the age of 70), stayed too long in the shadows for above all circumstantial reasons; you just need to have your pictures in hand to realize how much the world has missed out on true masterpieces ”. It is driven by the desire to do justice to his immense talent that Galerie Thierry Bigaignon has embarked on the path of this “renaissance”. The retrospective devoted to him by the gallery will be held in several parts and over several years, so much the work of Harold Feinstein conceals unsuspected treasures. The first part of the retrospective will focus on the photographer's early years, the 1940s and 1950s, offering a selection of black and white photographs, at the same time rich, diverse and overwhelming humanism. A contagious optimism that will not leave anyone indifferent. • 35 original black and white photographs, signed and numbered. • Format 16x20inch (approx. 40x50cm) • Limited edition