The Way It Was : JFK, Marilyn & Fidel

He was there, he showed up, he took the shot – which in the case of photographer I.C. “Chuck” Rapoport, means some of the most iconic moments in post-War America and Europe caught on film. Some 14 prints of Papoport's most famous works are on view at Jim Haynes, beginning, 28 October in a show entitled "ICONS."

Rapoport, who was born in the Bronx and attended the High School of Art and Design, studied photography at Ohio University. He got his first crack as a photojournalist in the 1960s with Paris-Match Magazine, working out of their New York bureau. His many “Match” photos include pictures of John F. Kennedy, Fidel Castro, Marilyn Monroe, Samuel Beckett, Eva Gabor, Tina Onassis, the Crown Prince and Princess of Japan, among dozens of other icons of the time. His cover photo of Jackie Kennedy in the now classic JFK funeral issue (Numero Historique) was seen around the world. Rapoport was later published in LIFE Magazine, TIME, Sports Illustrated, the Saturday Evening Post, LOOK, National Geographic. His photos of Samuel Beckett were recently on view at the Centre Pompidou here in Paris.
Working with Suzanne Hollands and IVY PARIS, Lalande Digital Art Press helped produce a series of invitation cards for Rapoport's Paris show with Jim Haynes. "He's a great photographer, one of the classic image-makers of 1960s and 1970s," says Hollands. "It's quite amazing to have this work here, plus Chuck is a sweetheart."

The photographs are sensationally printed and breathe life back into the turbulent 1960s, an era where innocence took a plunge and heros were few. Black and white, yet with a gritty elegance, Rapoport's photos decant the moments in which icons emerged into public consciousness, before television took hold of the American (and Western) mind. Like other photographers of his time – Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander – Rapoport shows simply, and directly, what is there. Here is a master of content.

In 2007, Equator Books of Venice, Los Angeles, held a highly successful one-man showing of Rapoport’s LIFE photo-essays concerning NY’s Times Square, "The Way It Was" (in 1965). Rapoport now lives in Pacific Palisades, California, and Manhattan, with his wife Mary, and is currently a film and television writer.

Jim Haynes : 83 rue de la Tombe Issoire 75014 Paris; Atelier A-2 Métro : Alésia.