STEVE SCHAPIRO: Once Upon A Time In America

Steve Schapiro: Entering Montgomery, Selma March, 1965

One of the most respected American documentary photographers, Steve Schapiro has photographed American history, and the fractured fabric of contemporary American life, over the last five decades. The list of people Steve Schapiro has photographed during his career reads like a Who's Who of the most influential politicians, celebrities and newsmakers in contemporary American history.


Join us Saturday, July 5, from 5 - 7 PM for a public reception with Steve Schapiro for the opening of the new exhibition "Once Upon A Time in America".


Steve Schapiro discovered photography at age of nine at a summer camp. Excited by the camera's potential, he would spend the next decades prowling the streets of his native New York trying to emulate the work of the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. Schapiro was a disciple of the great photographer W. Eugene Smith, and shared Smith's passion for black and white documentary work. From the beginning of Schapiro's career, he had already set a mission for himself: to chronicle the "American Life". His career in photography began in 1960 with personal documentary projects on "Arkansas Migrant Workers" and "Narcotics Addiction in East Harlem". Schapiro became involved in many civil rights stories including the Selma March and covering Martin Luther King; he traveled with Bobby Kennedy on his Senate campaign and Presidential campaign; and did photo essays on Haight Ashbury, the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation, and Protest in America. He photographed Andy Warhol and the New York art scene, John and Jacqueline Kennedy, poodles, beauty parlors, and performances at the famous Apollo Theater in New York. He also collaborated on projects for record covers and related art. As picture magazines declined in the 1970's and 80's he continued documentary work but also produced advertising material, publicity stills and posters for films, including, The Godfather, Rambo, The Way We Were, Risky Business, Taxi Driver, and Midnight Cowboy.

Related: The Santa Fe Reporter  Once Upon a Time… Veteran photog Steve Schapiro serves up poignant history

"one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced"

Photo  ©Timothy Hyde

Congressman John Lewis with Sidney Monroe, Monroe Gallery Booth,

DC Fine Art Photography Fair. To the right of Congressman Lewis' shoulder is:

 

 © Steve Schapiro Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights
with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman
 and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965

Photo ©Timothy Hyde

Congressman John Lewis viewing Ernest C. Withers' iconic

"I Am A Man" photograph

 

 

 

 © Steve Schapiro: John Lewis, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1963

 

 

 

 

 

United States Government Shutdown, 2013



©Steve Schapiro: Supermarket Protests, New Jersey, 1963

(50 Years Ago)

One Life: Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Bob Adelman (born 1930)

Via The National Portrait Gallery


Prologue

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. . . .
Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.


Under the inspired leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), nonviolent protest became the defining feature of the modern civil rights movement in America. A brilliant strategist, King first demonstrated the efficacy of passive resistance in 1955–56, while helping to lead the prolonged bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, that succeeded in dismantling bus segregation laws. Fresh from the victory that brought him national recognition, the charismatic King cofounded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and took the lead in directing its civil rights initiatives. In a carefully orchestrated campaign of peaceful protest to expose and defeat racial injustice, King awakened the nation’s conscience and galvanized support for the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he took a public stand against American involvement in the Vietnam War and also became a vocal advocate for those living in poverty. King’s words were as powerful as his deeds, and his moving and eloquent addresses, which gave hope to millions, continue to inspire people throughout the world.

Unless otherwise noted, all images are from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

 

Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy ride the first integrated bus in Montgomery, Alabama Ernest Withers (1922–2007)
Gelatin silver print, 1956 (printed later)

King proved to be the ideal choice to orchestrate and sustain the Montgomery bus boycott. As a relative newcomer to Montgomery, he was able to bring together all factions of the black community without regard to past rivalries. Through inspirational addresses delivered at mass meetings in Montgomery’s black churches, King galvanized support for the boycott and clearly articulated the case for nonviolent action, declaring, “We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love; we must meet physical force with soul force.” He found a strong ally in fellow Montgomery minister Ralph Abernathy, and during the course of the boycott the two men forged a strong working relationship and a deep friendship. Continuing for an unprecedented 381 days, the bus boycott ended only after the United States Supreme Court ruled bus segregation unconstitutional. When the first integrated bus rolled through Montgomery on December 21, 1956, King and Abernathy sat side by side.  (Via National Portriat Gallery)



Selected Portraits / Curator's Statement

As we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, I believe it is important to remember King not merely as a dreamer but as a doer. In his thirteen years of public life as an advocate for civil rights, economic opportunity, and world peace, King motivated others not only by communicating his vision for a brighter future but by acting boldly to challenge injustice. Despite enormous odds and the ever-present risk of failure, King led by example, exhibiting courage and character as he maintained his steadfast commitment to nonviolent resistance and direct action. Anyone can dream of a better and more just world. Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to making that dream a reality.

—Ann M. Shumard, Senior Curator of Photographs

Watch: Ann Shumard, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of photographs, on the exhibit, “One Life: Martin Luther King Jr

This exhibition has been funded by the Guenther and Siewchin Yong Sommer Endowment Fund and an anonymous donor.


Visit the Exhibition: Information here

 

Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965

Steve Schapiro

Survey of five-decade career of photographer Steve Schapiro on view at Kunsthalle Rostock

US photographer Steve Schapiro poses next to some of his works during a press conference at the Kunsthalle museum in Rostock, northeastern Germany. From March 23 to May 5, 2013, the museum presents around 150 photographs by Schapiro in the exhibition titled "Steve Schapiro - Then and Now - A Retrospective". AFP PHOTO / BERND WUESTNECK   

Via Artdaily.org


ROSTOCK.- Steve Schapiro is the photographer behind countless now-classic portraits of rock stars, film stars and politicians from the 1960s and 70s. He is also an accomplished documentary photographer who recorded many of the greatest political and social upheavals of our times. While working as a 'special photographer' for the film studios, he designed several iconic film posters, most notably for Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver and The Godfather Part III. His extraordinary access has been the hallmark of an illustrious career.

A retrospective of Schapiro's work opened at the Kunsthalle Rostock, Museum of Modern Art in Germany on March 24, 2013. The show, which is curated by Dr. Ulrick Ptak, presents 150 photographs, many of them recently published for the first time in Schapiro's critically acclaimed retrospective Steve Schapiro: Then and Now (Hatje Cantz). The exhibition and companion book look back at Schapiro's diverse half-century career spanning 1961 to 2011. They portray the celebrities and politicians who shaped a generation, as well as new and unseen documentary work focusing on the marginalized and unidentified people on the street.

Then and Now includes whimsical portraits of the stars: Robert De Niro in full Taxi Driver combat costume, posed in front of his cab with a Mohican and an improbably chirpy smile; Jack Nicholson, nose bandaged, tongue out at the camera on the set of Chinatown; and Marlon Brando, grinning with theatrical devilishness while being made up for The Godfather.

Also gathered are portraits that include artists René Magritte, Nico, and Andy Warhol; film directors Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorcese; film stars Drew Barrymore, Mia Farrow, Jodie Foster, Dustin Hoffman, Sophia Loren, Paul Newman and Robert Redford; and musicians David Bowie, Ray Charles, Simon and Garfunkel, Diana Ross, Ringo Starr, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand, and Ike and Tina Turner.

When Schapiro started shooting in the sixties, it was the golden age of photojournalism. Schapiro's extensive work in this genre include his depiction of migrant workers in Arkansas, drug addicts in East Harlem, freedom bus riders, the Selma March to Montgomery, Alabama with Martin Luther King, Jr., and presidential campaigns, most notably that of Robert F. Kennedy. Among his most striking works is a triptych that presents photographs Schapiro took in Memphis in 1968 the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. while on assignment for Life. Schapiro was the only photographer to capture the ominous handprint of King's assassin on the wall above the bathtub in the boarding house bathroom from where the fatal shot was fired.

The thread that connects all of Schapiro's photographs is his humanistic approach to his work. Whether shooting a celebrity or an anonymous person he is searching for that iconic moment. In his essay in the book, curator and author Matthias Harder writes that Schapiro's work reflects "the spirit of the times. It is not only his famous individual photos and groups of works from his engagement with Hollywood that ensure him a firm place in the history of photography of the twentieth and twenty first centuries, but also the diversity of his subjects and the sovereign, continuing mastery of them over such a long period of time."

Born and raised in New York City, Steve Schapiro started taking photographs at age ten while at summer camp. He attended Amherst College and graduated from Bard College, and studied photography with the legendary W. Eugene Smith. As a budding photographer, he got an early break: an assignment from Life magazine. He has never stopped working since. His work has been published in prestigious magazines and on numerous covers around the world, including Life, Look, Vanity Fair, Paris Match, People, and Rolling Stone. Schapiro's photographs were included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1968 exhibition Harlem On My Mind. His work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian, The High Museum of Art, and the National Portrait Gallery. Schapiro's recent solo shows were in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, London and Paris. The Fotografiska Museum in Stockholm, Sweden presented a retrospective of his work in the spring of 2012. An exhibition of his work entitled Schapiro: Living America opened at the Center for Photography Lumiere Brothers, Moscow in the fall of 2012, and included 180 images.



Steve Schapiro's photographs will be on exhibit during the AIPAD Photography Show April 3 - 7, Monroe Gallery of Photography, Booth #419.

LA Times: Steve Schapiro's photos in 'Then and Now' offer a mix of emotions

Marlon Brando in a makeup session for "The Godfather" in New York, 1971      

©Steve Schapiro

 The photographer's book features candid Hollywood portraits alongside everyday images.

Via The Los Angeles Times
By Liesl Bradner

February 24, 2013

 

When photographer Steve Schapiro first arrived on the Lower East Side set of "The Godfather" in 1971, there were rumors floating around that Marlon Brando was not well. Moving closer to the action, he noticed an old man in an overcoat and hat talking to an assistant director with this gravelly, sick voice. The rumors must be true, he thought.

"Suddenly," Schapiro recalled, "Brando turns to the crowd with this enormous electricity shooting out of his eyes and in his best 'On the Waterfront' accent said, 'I think there's someone with a camera out there.'" That stunning transformation was just one of many Oscar-worthy moments Schapiro has witnessed in his 50-year career working on the sets of such groundbreaking films as "Taxi Driver," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Chinatown."

In "Steve Schapiro: Then and Now" (Hatje Cantz) the 78-year-old pairs candid photos and portraits of Hollywood celebrities alongside artists, musicians, civil rights activists and everyday people taken from the 1960s through 2011.

"I see a lot of celebrity books that don't excite me because they're just portraits," said Schapiro on a call from his Chicago studio. "We wanted to bring pictures together that work against each other or with each other by interjecting things which weren't necessarily film-related." For example, Jane Fonda clad in aerobics attire at the height of her fitness craze juxtaposed next to sumo wrestlers in Chicago in 2010 or Dustin Hoffman in a midair jump placed next to Roman Polanski in a flying-nun pose from 1968.

Of the nearly 150 photos, only 12 pictures have been published before, quite extraordinary for a photographer who has worked on more than 200 films and created 100 movie posters. The list of famous faces he's photographed reads like a history of the Academy Awards: Francis Ford Coppola, Jodie Foster, Sophia Loren, Martin Scorsese and nominee Robert De Niro, up for his third golden statuette at Sunday's ceremony.

Whether it's a candid between-scenes shot or an intimate picture in the comfort of home, Schapiro's aim is to capture the spirit and sense of his subject. "I try to be a fly on the wall as much as possible," he said. "For me emotion is the strongest quality in a picture."

One of the more interesting discoveries he made was an unearthed negative of a young Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) meeting his future wife Lonnie for the first time in 1963. On assignment for Sports Illustrated, the black-and-white image Schapiro shot reveals a shy, ponytailed 6-year-old girl, just one of a gaggle of neighborhood kids hanging out on the stoop with Ali outside his parent's house in Kentucky.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Schapiro was influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson and studied under W. Eugene Smith. He began as a photojournalist during the turbulent '60s. After photo-centric publications such as Life and Look folded in the early '70s he turned to film, working as a special photographer, an industry term for a contractor hired for publicity and marketing. His photograph of Mia Farrow from "The Great Gatsby" was on the first cover of People magazine

Photo l.a. returned for its 22nd Edition – with closing date Jan. 21st

Bill Eppridge with Congressman Tom LeBonge (right)

Via Hollywoodtoday.net

Photo l.a. – the longstanding photographic art exposition, returned to the historic Santa Monica Civic Auditorium last night for its 22nd edition. The show will run daily through January 21, 2013. Continuing the discourse on photography’s place in the fine arts, photo l.a. provides dealers from around the globe a platform for the exhibition of vintage masterworks and contemporary photography, as well as video and multimedia installations creating the juxtaposition that differentiates photo l.a. from the rest.

Over the last two decades, photo l.a. has exhibited more than 300 galleries, private dealers and publishers, as well as presented more than 200 lectures and collecting seminars to the public. photo l.a. offers a dynamic experience for visitors while also attracting over 11,000 interested collectors, curators and dealers of photography annually. 

Photos by Steve Schapiro of Rosa Parks,  Martin Luther King at Monroe Gallery Booth

In addition to the continuation of the lectures, panels, book signings and special installations, photo l.a. is pleased to introduce photoBOOK LA, a new platform for publishers and book artists with guest reviewers offering feedback to photographers on their book proposals.

Following the overwhelming success of the Emerging Focus Educational series during last year’s exposition, photo l.a. is announcing its affiliation with Emerging Focus Photo Expo, which will be held across the street at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel. Master classes on photography and portfolio reviews will be part of the schedule.

Alec Byrne’s photo of Paul McCartney 1970

Photo l.a. 2013′s speakers, panels, roundtables, book signings and installations include:
Mapplethorpe at LACMA and the Getty — Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Britt Salvesen (Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ) and Curator of Photographs at the Getty Research Institute, Francis Terpak (In Focus: Robert Mapplethorpe), will discuss the simultaneous exhibitions of the artist’s work.

Mike Spitz book about mental illness

Matthew Thompson — curator and author of “The Anxiety of Photography” — will lead a round table discussion with a mix of younger Los Angeles artists including Andrea Longacre-White, Anthony Pearson and David Benjamin Sherry, who hybridize photography with some other media to explore its materiality.

Bill Eppridge — noted photojournalist — lectures on his experiences documenting the 1960s,   specifically, Robert F. Kennedy’s final campaign.

Meg Partridge — filmmaker — will speak about her father, Rondal Partridge, and his photographic work. Rondal Partridge was the son of Imogen Cunningham, whose mentors and colleagues included Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston.

Bill Eppridge’s photos of Robert F. Kennedy

Josephine Sacabo — photographer — will discuss her trajectory from a documentary street photographer to her current work using the etched photogravure as her exclusive form of printmaking.

POINT OF VIEW — selections from Los Angeles collectors will be exhibited with some collectors elaborating on their collecting motivations at a round table discussion.

Artillery Magazine hosts one of its infamous Face Off Debates. 

Ellen Jantzen

New Sales Platforms roundtable with Heritage Auctions, 1stdibs and artnet. 

Private docent tours of the fair with experts in the field of photography: Gordon Baldwin (former Curator, Dept. of Photographs, The J. Paul Getty Museum), Deborah Bell (Vice President, Specialist Head of Photographs Department), Weston Naef (Curator Emeritus, Dept.  of Photographs, The J. Paul Getty Museum)

Visit www.photola.com for open hours.
January 18th – 21st, 2013
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
1855 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA90401-3209
.
JANUARY 18th – 21st, 2013
SANTA MONICA CIVIC AUDITORIUM

Steve Schapiro Interview: "The picture isn't truth. The picture is the photographer's point of view"

 

 

 

Via FreshMilkArt

(Pardon the ad) 

 

 



Interview: Steve Schapiro

Steve Schapiro was born in 1934 in New York. In the beginning he photographed the daily life on the streets of New York. Steve Schapiro made his education at the American photographer W. Eugene Smith. For years, Steve Schapiro photographed socially critical series like drug addicts in East Harlem or the lives of American immigrants. These pictures he sent to the "Life" magazine - until 1961 he received his first commission.

A Life full of legendsSteve Schapiro photographed in the 60ies the Kennedys and followed Robert "Bobby" Kennedy in 1968 during his campaign. He also worked with artis like Barbara Streisand and Maroln Brando. Also Muhammed Ali was one of the persons Steve Schapiro photographed during his career. He evolved a passion for photographing on film sets. His first shots he did on the film set of Martin Scorsese. The pictures he did on the film sets of "Taxi Driver" and "Godfather" are well known and legendary.

 

 

 

"Fifty Years Defending Freedom"

Via Syndication

In 1962 a group of dedicated civil libertarians came together to form the ACLU of New Mexico to defend and extend our most basic freedoms. Much has changed since then, and the ACLU has been such an important part of our state’s progress.


In honor of their fiftieth year defending freedom in New Mexico, the ACLU has produced the below short film, “Fifty Years Defending Freedom”. In this 17 minute film, you will hear from some of the key people from the organization’s past and present speak about the values that drive the important work of the organization and the historic civil liberties victories they have won over the past half century.

 

 

 

Check-out some ACLU NM News here, including:
 

• ACLU Sues Border Patrol for Retaliating against Agent for Political Beliefs
• Marriage Is About Love, Commitment and Family—Not Discrimination
• VIDEO: Voter Suppression in Albuquerque
• “I won’t fill your birth control prescription.”
• Real ID is Dead. New Mexico IDs Will Continue to be Valid.

With the help of local supporters, the ACLU has grown from a tiny, all-volunteer organization to the largest, hardest-hitting civil liberties organization in the state. Today, the government knows that if they violate people’s rights, the ACLU WILL hold them accountable to the law.



Related: Steve Schapiro

STEVE SCHAPIRO: "“I don’t think I’ve yet taken my most important photograph"

 

Barbra Streisand, 1970. 'We shot this at her house in Malibu. She has extremely good taste and strong ideas about how pictures should be.'

Photo: Steve Schapiro

 Via The Telegraph


Steve Schapiro: access all areas


How did photographer Steve Schapiro go from documenting the lives of drug addicts and immigrants to spending months trailing Hollywood’s biggest stars? ‘I was quiet and polite,’ he tells Lucy Davies

Steve Schapiro learnt not to be intimidated by fame at an early age. As a teenager, long before he became a fixture of film sets and rock star mansions, Schapiro was determined to become “the world’s greatest novelist”. So he enrolled at Bard College in upstate New York, where he had tutorials with author Saul Bellow; they walked in the woods together, discussing Dostoevsky. But after a five-week sojourn in Paris and Spain working through the night on a novel, he realised there were “only four good pages in the whole thing. It was at that point I took up photography.”

Until then, it had been his hobby – something to do on holiday. He had a small, Bakelite camera called an Argoflex that he sometimes took outside on the streets near his home in the Bronx. “It seemed to me that the best thing you could do was work for Life magazine, so I began my own projects that were similar to the things they published – drug addicts in East Harlem, Haight Ashbury. I would keep going back to Life every few weeks to persuade them to hire me.”

In 1959, his story on migrant workers in Arkansas was picked up by a small magazine called Jubilee: “The New York Times saw it and asked if they could use one on their cover. It was really a terrific moment for someone just starting out.”

Life finally commissioned him – a portrait of Patrick Dennis, author of hit comic novel Auntie Mame. “I’d heard that Life photographers liked to photograph people in a bathtub – I don’t think it was necessarily true – but I brought along some bubble bath and persuaded him to do it. It ran full page.” The rest of the pack followed suit: Look, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone.

“Even though I was in my twenties, I looked about 16, and I was quiet and polite. Everyone liked me. I travelled with Bobby Kennedy, I photographed the Selma March with Martin Luther King. I did Andy Warhol in The Factory and Muhammad Ali. I never knew where I would be in two days because I was always on the plane.”

Alongside the political stories he was making his name on the entertainment pages. His photograph of Dustin Hoffman for Look became the logo for Midnight Cowboy, then Otto Preminger hired him to take the onset photographs for The Cardinal, which was nominated for six Academy Awards.

While working on the lots he heard that Marlon Brando was going to be in Paramount’s forthcoming production of The Godfather. “At the time Brando was the top actor, so I went to Life and I got them to guarantee a cover, which they never do – they wouldn’t even do it for Frank Sinatra. I went back to Paramount and, of course, they agreed. I ended up working on the entire film.” Schapiro’s shots of Brando, Pacino et al are now classics of still photography. Everybody saw them, and everybody wanted Schapiro to photograph them. At the time it wasn’t unusual for him to spend four days, even six months, with a personality, one-to-one. “It often seemed we were the best of friends,” he says.

The only person he found difficult was Charles Bronson: “very brash”. Generally, though, his shoots were amiable collaborations. “For me there’s no difference between photographing a celebrity and a migrant worker. You’re always looking for a picture with emotion, design and information. I leave a lot of room for self-expression. I want my subjects to be themselves, and then I quietly pounce.”

Now 78, Schapiro lives in Chicago with his wife and youngest son. He continues to photograph and recently worked with his son on a photo story about the ageing hippie generation. “I don’t think I’ve yet taken my most important photograph,” he says. “I’m happy with many of the images. But I always look to the future.”

‘Steve Schapiro: Then and Now’ (Hatje Cantz, RRP £55) is available to order from Telegraph Books at £50 plus £1.35 p&p. Call 0844 871 1516 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

This article also appeared in SEVEN magazine, free with the Sunday Telegraph. Follow us on Twitter @TelegraphSeven

Steve Schapiro: Then and Now

 

Freedom Bus, Summer of 1964 © Steve Schapiro

Via La Journal de la Photographie (with slide show)

Robert Kennedy was the most imposing politician he ever met. And Johnny Depp is incredibly photogenic. Steve Schapiro (1934 in Brooklyn) ought to know, because he has actually photographed them all: his expressive portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, Barbara Streisand, Marlon Brando, David Bowie, Jodie Foster, and Robert de Niro are part of our collective visual memory. Besides his work with the stars, Schapiro and his camera accompanied the greatest political and social upheavals of the sixties and seventies. These photographs have also achieved iconic status.

This volume includes a selection of photos taken over a period of more than fifty. In the accompanying essays, Schapiro explains how they were created, describing his experiences in a lively, humorous way. Along with previously unpublished photographs, the book also features new works by the timeless master.

Steve Schapiro, 
Then and Now

Texts by Steve Schapiro, interview with the artist by Matthias Harder, graphic design by Julia Günther, Steve Schapiro
Editor : Hatje Cantz
272 pages, 25 x 31 cm
60 €

Links

http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titzif=00003426&lang=en

AIPAD: Bill Eppridge and Steve Schapiro Selects

Via PHOTO/arts Magazine

AIPAD 2012 (part 2)

"Susan May Tell is a career fine art photographer and photojournalist, with a very impressive background. She is currently the Fine Arts Chair for ASMP/NY. As one might expect, her magnet draws her towards classic black & white photography, photojournalism and documentary work.

One of the highlights of the afternoon for Susan was meeting, photographing, and being photographed by Bill Eppridge, surely among the greats of modern photojournalism. Eppridge is most well known for his iconic image of the busboy supporting the head of Robert Kennedy as he lay dying from a gunshot wound in 1968. His work was being shown by Monroe Gallery (419). Another image Susan noticed and loved at Monroe Gallery was Steve Schapiro's Freedom Rider Jerome Smith, Mississippi (1965)."

Related: Long Road to Freedom, Steve Schpairo and Jerome Smith

             Santa Fe, Rétrospective Bill Eppridge

            Raw File:  “Hard-Boiled Photog Blends the Old With the New"

Mohammed Ali ©Steve Schapiro

“As a photographer you are looking for the same emotional moments 
and design elements that might lead to an iconic image. The only 
différence is that in the ‘so called’ real world, you usually do not know what might happen next, but on a film set, if you have read the script you have a good idea what the next moments will bring“.--Steve Schapiro

View Steve Schapiros photography during the AIPAD Photography Show at Monroe Gallery, Booth #419

“I think his message is the key to world peace, to peace here in this country. And I think Martin Luther King Jr. was so ahead of his time”

Steve Schapiro: Martin Luther King, Alabama, 1965

On this day, we remember Martin Luther King.

If you are in the Los Angeles area, it is the final day for Photo LA 2012:

Grey Villet, Steve Schapiro, and Paul Schutzer photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, at Photo LA (Booth 500).

Related: Throngs reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream

Steve Schapiro: Before the Tragedy

Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner on their yacht, 10/8/7

 © Steve Schapiro, Courtesy Everett Collection

Via La Lettre de la Photographie.  La Lettre shares and informs daily on the events in the world of photography.


Intimate images "taken by the photographer Steve Schapiro. Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner had invited him to spend the day on their boat, The Splendour, off Catalina Island in front of Los Angeles. Steve Schapiro recalls a loving couple that had married, divorced, and remarried. Not long after, tragedy struck."  Full post here.

END OF WORLD MAY 21?

Steve Schapiro: The Worst is Yet to Come, New York, c. 1968

US preacher warns end of the world is nigh: 21 May, around 6pm, to be precise

Steve Schapiro: Supermarket Protests, New Jersey, 1963

COMPOSING THE ARTIST

Steve Schapiro: Rene Magritte, Museum of Modert Art, New York, 1965

Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce "Composing The Artist", an extensive survey of more than 50 classic photographs portraying iconic personalities from the arts as captured by renowned photographers. The exhibition opens with a reception on Friday, May 6, from 5 to 7 PM. "Composing The Artist" will continue through June 26.


The common definition of an "artist" is one who is able, by virtue of imagination and talent or skill, to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts. Photographs of artists and writers across the centuries have shaped our sense of what they do. Photographs in the exhibit include images of visual artists and classic writers, at work, in quiet contemplative moments and in portraiture. In these photographs the essential personality of the artist is revealed, and an image of the past becomes visual history. Other pictures also brilliantly match artworks with the personality and appearance of their creators: they are not just at one with their working environment, they are their work.

View the exhibit here.


Related: Guardian Newspaper Series: Photographer Steve Schapiro's Best Shot

Steve Schapiro: Memories


Via La Lettre de la Photographie

Steve Schapiro, the photographer of The Godfather and Taxi Driver, is in Paris for his exhibition at the A. Galerie. Christophe Lunn and Paul Barrois met with him for La Lettre in order to evoke some of his memories on the set of these epic movies.

"The Whisper"

Click here for interview.

http://www.a-galerie.fr/

Related: Steve Schapiro exhibition review in Summer 2010 issue of ARTnews.

Steve Schapiro, Hollywood's child

©Steve Schapiro "Brando with the cat"

Via La Lettre de la Photographie

 

A selection of Steve Schapiro’s pictures taken behind the scenes during filming of “The Godfather” and “Taxi Driver” will be on display at the A. Gallery in Paris until May 14, 2011.


In 1971, when Francis Ford Coppola began working on “The Godfather”, Steve Schapiro was a young photographer, 37 years old, known for his work published in Life, Look, Newsweek, and on movie sets. It is for this reason that Paramount offered him exclusive coverage of the making of “The Godfather”. This unique status provided him access to an exceptional “cast”, capturing the private moments with Brando that would become the film’s iconic images. His reputation would certainly contribute, four years later, to his being named official set photographer for Martin Scorcese’s new movie, “Taxi Driver”. There too, Steve Schapiro’s pictures would become icons. Robert de Niro (Travis Bickle) pointing his gun in front of a mirror, or Jodie Foster (Iris) waiting in front of a hotel entrance.

©Steve Schapiro "The Whisper"

These 35 enlargements (40 × 50cm or 75 × 100cm) are the renowned pictures hanging on the walls of the A. Gallery. Slide show here.

Pictures from the sets of “Midnight Cowboy” and “Chinatown” will also be on display at the A. Gallery. Several recent and to be published books are also featuring his photographs. “Schapiro’s Heros”, 2007, Powerhouse Books, and “The Godfather Family Album”, a collection of set pictures from the “Godfather” saga, published by Taschen. “Taxi Driver” also published by Taschen and “Chinatown” soon to be released by the same editor.



Bernard Perrine

Correspondant for The Institut of France

Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Steve Schapiro “You talkin’ to me ?”
Until May 14

A. galerie
Rue Léonce Reynaud, 12
75116 Paris

Links
http://www.a-galerie.fr/exhibitions.php


Related: Steve Schapiro: American Edge and review in ARTnews

"HEROES: PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEVE SCHAPIRO"

If you are in the New Hampshire area, we highly recommend this exhibition.



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. © All Photographs Copyright of Steve Schapiro

Lamont Gallery Presents "Heroes: Works by Steve Schapiro" Monday, December 6, 2010 - Saturday, January 22, 2011


Exeter, NH -- From Monday, December 6, 2010 to Saturday, January 22, 2011, the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy will present Heroes: Works by Steve Schapiro, renowned journalism and portrait photographer, in an exhibition of 60 of his photographs. An artist reception will be held on Friday, January 7, 2011, 6:30-8 p.m.; and a gallery talk will be held on Saturday, January 8, 2011, 10 a.m. The exhibition is organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions © Steve Schapiro. The Lamont Gallery is in the Frederick R. Mayer Art Center on Tan Lane. This exhibit is free and open to the public. Please note the gallery will be closed Friday, December 18, 2010—Tuesday, January 4, 2011.

The exhibit is a collection of Schapiro’s "personally selected iconic images from his encounters with artists, writers, actors, athletes, and politicians throughout the second half of the 20th Century." Schapiro’s work ranges from dramatic images of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, to portraits of Robert F. Kennedy, Jackie Onassis, Muhammad Ali, Truman Capote and Andy Warhol. His groundbreaking images of influential personalities, newsmakers, and cultural and political leaders display a modest yet remarkable presentation of his extraordinary life in photography.

Born and raised in New York City, Schapiro’s career as a notable photographer began in 1960, when he documented Arkansas migrant workers who were fighting for electricity in their camps. His photographs were published as a cover story for The New York Times Magazine, and ultimately forced the workers’ management to provide the utility, according to Schapiro’s website.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he traveled throughout the U.S. as a documentary photographer, recording the changing culture and politics. During the 1970s and 1980s, besides continuing his photographic works, he created iconic movie stills for such movies as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, and John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy. Later, Schapiro worked for such musical greats as Barbra Streisand and David Bowie, creating photography for album covers.

"As a young photographer on assignment for Life, my only ambition was that the pictures I took each day would be published in the following week’s magazine; I never thought beyond that. I could not imagine that 40 years later, so many of my subjects would remain strong, iconic figures in the world. However, as I photographed each of these ten individuals, I was aware of the life-changing effect they were having on me," Schapiro says.

His photos have been displayed on the covers of some of the world’s most well-known and well-read magazines, including: TIME, Newsweek, LIFE, Look, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, People, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Magazine.

Having to help shape an iconic American culture, Schapiro’s works are represented in many private and public collections, including: the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C.; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Hamiltons Gallery, London, England; Galerie Thierry Marlat, Paris, France; Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, NM; Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA.

Gallery hours are Mondays 1–5 p.m.; Tuesday–Saturday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed on Sundays. Please note the Lamont Gallery will be closed from December 18, 2010 until January 4, 2011. For more information, contact the Lamont Gallery at 603-777-3461. For information on upcoming events, visit the Academy’s community calendar. To learn more about the Academy and its events and programs, visit our website. You may also call the PEA public events line at 603-777-4309.

Related: Steve Schapiro Exhibition review in ArtNews