Sam Fentress was born in Detroit in 1955 and grew up in Nashville and Detroit. A 1977 graduate of Princeton University, where he studied with Emmet Gowin and Frederick Sommer, he received an Emerging Artist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978, and an M.F.A degree from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1980.
His photographs have been in solo and group exhibitions at O.K. Harris Gallery in New York, Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Afterimage Gallery in Dallas. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Saint Louis Art Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, as well as the noted private collections of Hollywood producer Bruce Berman, chairman of Village Roadshow Pictures, and Paul Sack of San Francisco. Berman and Sack have been listed among the world’s top photography collectors by ARTnews.
Selected Collections:
THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
BRUCE AND NANCY BERMAN
BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE
CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES / DUKE UNIVERSITY
IN-N-OUT BURGER
JOSLYN ART MUSEUM
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART
NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ART
PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM
PAUL AND PRENTICE SACK COLLECTION
SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM
SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART