In celebration of Sinatra’s 100th birthday, Proud Chelsea presents Sinatra at 100: A Century in the Making, a personal and intimate collection of rare and unique photographs from the Sinatra Family Archive. This official exhibition captures self-portraits taken by Sinatra himself in his early formative years, through to never before seen photographs of the golden era of Sinatra by celebrated photographers Terry O’Neill, Ken Veeder and Milton Greene.

Frank Sinatra’s granddaughter, Amanda Erlinger, began archiving the vintage photographs from her Grandmother, Nancy Sinatra Senior’s, family photo albums alongside hundreds of photographs in Frank Sinatra Enterprises. Amanda pledged to uphold Sinatra’s legacy and share with others this remarkable work revealing both the public and private man. Remembering the day she first saw the picture that her grandfather took of himself, reflected in the medicine cabinet mirror at his apartment in 1938, Amanda said “He took a selfie!” And her grandmother asked her, “What’s a selfie?”

In addition to these family photographs, some of which have only been discovered in recent months, the exhibition will also reveal photographs of Sinatra in his heyday, with candid shots taken by a number of legendary photographers from the era such as: Milton Greene, David Sutton, Ed Thrasher, Ken Veeder, John Bryson, Sid Avery, Allen Grant and others. These images of one of the century’s most enduring icons were used on album covers and as publicity shots of Sinatra on stage, in the studio and just relaxing with his friends. Many of these photos were commissioned by Sinatra’s record labels and are being released as fine art prints for the first time after being discovered in the respective archives of Capitol Records and Warner Music.

Terry O’Neill’s discerning eye, captures a relationship spanning three decades. Sinatra allowed O’Neill’s camera to follow his every move on the road, at home and backstage. O’Neill remembers his first photograph, probably his most famous shot ever, of Sinatra walking with his entourage to the film set on the Miami Boardwalk. O’Neill passed Sinatra a letter, he opened it, read it, crumpled it up in his pocket and turned to this security men and said, “this kid’s with me”. Experimenting with photography, learning how to use a camera and developing his own photographs was something Sinatra enjoyed and when reflecting on this shoot O’Neill said, “Sinatra was a very good photographer himself. He knew about lighting and composition so subconsciously he might have been helping me a bit in some shots.”

Proud Galleries have collaborated with The Sinatra Family Archive, 1966 Americas and Frank Sinatra Enterprises to bring you this unique and historic collection of vintage and modern fine art prints showing the man and the music marking his centenary year.