Steve Schapiro

Career

Steve Schapiro was an American pho­to­jour­nal­ist born in Brooklyn in 1934.

Visual Style

He devel­oped his vision of the world and pho­tog­ra­phy under the men­tor­ship of the renowned American pho­to­jour­nal­ist William Eugene Smith. The polit­i­cal, cul­tural, and social trans­for­ma­tions that shaped the United States dur­ing the 1960s and 1970s pro­vided Schapiro with the oppor­tu­nity to doc­u­ment some of the defin­ing moments of American society. 

Major Series and Works

Commissioned by Paramount in the 1970s, he also pro­duced on-​set pho­tog­ra­phy for iconic films such as The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and Midnight Cowboy.
As one of the lead­ing fig­ures in pho­to­jour­nal­ism, his pho­tographs are now exhib­ited in muse­ums around the world.

Recognition

Steve Schapiro passed away in Chicago in 2022.

Reading the Work

Steve Schapiro’s work finds its bal­ance in a human­is­tic and cin­e­matic approach to pho­tog­ra­phy, mov­ing between social doc­u­men­tary, por­trai­ture, and behind-​the-​scenes images of cult films. It is dis­tin­guished by sig­nif­i­cant doc­u­men­tary value, a close con­nec­tion to American his­tory, and com­po­si­tions that retain a strong emo­tional res­o­nance. Reading his images ben­e­fits from close atten­tion to nuance: a com­po­si­tional detail, a par­tic­u­lar dis­tance from the sub­ject, light, or tex­ture are often enough to reveal their depth.