Steve Schapiro.Photo: Target Presse Agentur Gmbh/Getty
Photojournalist Steve Schapiro, whose work ranged from documenting the civil rights movement to taking celebrity portraits, has died. He was 87.
Schapiro died at his Chicago home of pancreatic cancer on Jan. 15, his wife, Maura Smith, toldThe New York Times.
“We have lost a giant of 20th-century photography, and Schapiro’s contributions are immeasurable,” Bob Ahern, director of archive photography for Getty Images, toldCNN. “His talent defied genres, and he brought a compassionate and informed eye to events that decades later are still shaping our lives and our news today.”
Among the activists and leaders he photographed during this time wereDr. Martin Luther King Jr., writerJames Baldwinand Rep.John Lewis.
“He was important to the movement,” filmmakerAva DuVernaywrote on Twitter following news of the photojournalist’s death. “His images moved mindsduring a crucial time.”
In the early 1970s, when the magazines he had worked for folded or scaled back publication, Schapiro moved to Los Angeles, focusing on celebrity portraits, per theTimes.
“I enjoy waiting for that moment when I sense something about someone,” the late photographer said of his style during a 2017 interview with friend and gallery owner David Fahey, according to the newspaper.
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PEOPLE’s inaugural issue, which hit newsstands on March 4, 1974.
In addition to shooting album covers forBarbra StreisandandDavid Bowie, he did still photography for a number of movies, includingThe GodfatherandTaxi Driver, according to CNN.
“Steve Schapiro was one of my favorite photographers,” Streisandwroteon Twitter. “He followed me everywhere — London, Africa, on sets, off sets. He shall be missed, but he’s left us with [a] great legacy of wonderful work.”
Schapiro remained active in the final years of his life, taking photos of theBlack Lives Mattermovement and photographing a demonstration against the death penalty, per theTimes.
“It’s rare to find photographers that can make photographs across so many genres and with such ease,” Ahern told CNN. “But Steve’s camera intersected with so many pivotal points in history and he did it all.”
source: people.com
