Andrew Sacks

Andrew Sacks (American, 20th & 21st century) collection available at the Michigan Art Gallery.

Andrew Sacks was born in Detroit and attended college at the University of Michigan where he began his photography work for the Michigan Daily from 1965-1969.He has had a long career in image making as a still photographer and filmmaker, and his work for magazine and photo agencies has taken him across North America and overseas. Although Sacks has done a lot of freelance photography for magazines and newspapers including the Detroit News and New York Times, he now concentrates on video production. His local clients include the Chelsea Milling Company and Chelsea State Bank.

While at the Michigan Daily, Sacks photographed political figures, musicians, student demonstrations at the University of Michigan, draft card burnings and other anti-Vietnam War protests, the riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, and appearances of John Cage, Lyndon Johnson, Timothy Leary, Eldridge Cleaver, John Sinclair, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Iggy Pop, Aretha Franklin, Freddie Hubbard, and Gerald Ford in Ann Arbor, and a meeting of Ku Klux Klan in Dearborn, Michigan.

Based in the region of the Midwest often known as the Rust Belt, Sacks has documented the progress of the auto industry in the US for newspapers, magazines, annual reports, and stock photo agencies. With the introduction of more versatile and affordable quality video equipment, Sacks switched gears and began building a strong catalog of video imagery focusing on agriculture and industry. (Sources: Chelsea Update 2024, artist website “SaxFlix”)

He completed a feature length documentary about gospel music called, “Let’s Have Some Church Detroit Style”, which won an Emmy award in June 2016. “It’s an upbeat documentary that covers the Hallelujah Singers, a high-energy community choir led by Dr. E. LaQuint Weaver, as the group prepares for the 2014 Rhythm of Gospel Awards in Birmingham, Ala. It won the Audience Choice Award during its premier at the Detroit Free Press’ second annual film festival in 2015. Several months later, Detroit Public Television broadcast the film to a viewership of 17,000. In summer 2016, the film won a regional Michigan Emmy, and now it is being distributed to PBS stations nationwide.”

- Michigan Today, December 2016

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