My Florence: Photographs by Art Shay

Photo by Art Shay

About the Exhibition

Columbia College Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) and Library present My Florence, a photographic project by renowned Chicago artist Art Shay. 

The nearly seventy photographs presented in My Florence are primarily candid moments beginning with the first photograph Art took of Florence the day they met in 1942 as 20 year-old camp counselors in the Catskills.  Photographs of raising their family during the mid-20th century are combined with portraits of Florence with their culturally influential friends, such as Chicago writer Nelson Algren, rock musician Billy Corgan and playwright David Mamet. The final photographs in the exhibition were taken immediately after his beloved wife’s funeral in August 2012 when both Art and Florence were 90 years old.

The My Florence exhibition is located on the second floor of the Columbia College Chicago Library, 624 S. Michigan Avenue.