Steve Schapiro, Then and Now: Rare Images from a Photography Legend

3 minute read

Just 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 American history over the last five decades. But that Schapiro captured his subjects during their pivotal and seminal moments—Robert F. Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign; Marlon Brando on the set of The Godfather; Andy Warhol and muse Edie Sedgwick in The Factory, among others—lends his photographs an added significance. They aren’t just remarkable portraits of remarkable people, but snapshots into our country’s historical and cultural milestones.

Schapiro’s output over his more than 50-year career has been prolific, and many people have probably seen one of his photographs whether they realize it or not. But his new book, Then and Now, gives readers a look at Schapiro’s lesser-known work; the majority of pictures have never been published. “There were so many pictures that I loved but didn’t fit with the format of my previous books, so this was a chance to bring forth that work,” he says. The book is comprised of single images shown over a spread, as well as spreads of disparate images that share a composition or theme—one such example has a portrait of Martin Scorcese holding a gun and grapes on the left page, and a portrat of Mia Farrow holding a baby on the right. “I wanted to make a book that was interesting on every page,” says Schapiro. “That evolved into the idea of working with double pages where one picture worked with another.”

Schapiro first took an interest to photography at 9 while at summer camp. He fell in love with “the magic of photography” in the dark room, where he became fascinated by how pictures came to life after being dipped in various formulas. But it wasn’t until he discovered Henri Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment, as a teenager, that his interest really took hold. He began trying to capture his own decisive moments on the streets of New York City, before going to study the formal aspects of photography under W. Eugene Smith.

In 1961, amid the height of the Civil Rights movement, Schapiro started working as a freelance photographer for publications such as LIFE, Rolling Stone, TIME and Newsweek. Over the next 10 years, which Schapiro calls “the golden age of photojournalism,” he would cover the decade’s most significant events, including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 march in Selma, and later, King’s abandoned motel room after this assassination, as well as the “Summer of Love” in Haight-Asbury and Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign. “It was an incredible time to be a photojournalist because there was more of an emotional flow—an ability to do more emotional pictures that captured the spirit of a person,” says Schapiro of the period. “I was able to spend a lot of time with people—Bobby Kennedy went to South America for four weeks and I got to go with him. When I got really sick there, Ethel Kennedy brought me Bobby’s pajamas to wear. Bobby was someone who I became friends with, but everyone who worked with him loved him.”

Despite his success as a photographer, Schapiro maintains that he hasn’t taken his most important picture yet—and doesn’t have any idea what it might be. In the meantime, there’s one subject who continues to elude him: “President Barack Obama. I would love to photograph him.”


View more of Schapiro’s work here.


Image: Barbra Streisand, Los Angeles, 1972
Barbra Streisand, Los Angeles, 1972 "Barbra Streisand has an amazing sense of what is right for her career. One of the secrets of her success is to demand her own way and she is almost always right in her choices and taste."Steve Schapiro
Images: left: Selma Marchers On the Road, 1965, right: Martin Luther King Jr., Selma March 1965
left: Selma Marchers On the Road, 1965, right: Martin Luther King Jr., Selma March 1965 "Those who joined the Selma March could hold the flag high. It was a long symbolic walk and the possibility of violence was always there. Dr. King, the symbol of the non-violent revolution seemed to scour the crowds with a portent of what might follow."Steve Schapiro
Image: Warhol Entourage Triptych, New York, 1965
Warhol Entourage Triptych, New York, 1965 (Henry Geldzahler, Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga) "All of New York’s socialite art collectors doted on Andy Warhol. They would invite him to lavish dinners to show him off as their friend. Andy’s Entourage would tend to go off to the side and talk amongst themselves, ignoring their hosts." Steve Schapiro
Image: David Bowie, New Mexico, 1975
David Bowie, New Mexico, 1975 "When I was first photographing David Bowie, he kept changing the most fantastic outfits so quickly that many of them never got photographed. He would come out of the dressing room and before I could lift up a camera he went running back to make an adjustment. He would return twenty minutes later as a totally different person."Steve Schapiro
Image: Buster Keaton, New York, 1964
Buster Keaton, New York, 1964 "Buster Keaton, one of the great silent film stars, worked with Samuel Beckett on a film called 'Film.' It was a strange meeting of two worlds. Keaton, the master of visual sight gags and Beckett, the introverted intellectual."Steve Schapiro
Image: Dancers at The Apollo Theater, Harlem, 1961
Dancers at The Apollo Theater, Harlem, 1961 "The colorful Apollo Theater in Harlem is a music tastemaker's palace for established performers like Aretha Franklin and new talent as well. The audience is always vocal and once I saw a new 'diva' booed right off the stage." Steve Schapiro
Image: Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) Shadow Boxing, Louisville, Kentucky, 1963
Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) Shadow Boxing, Louisville, Kentucky, 1963 "I photographed Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, at his parents' house after he had won the Golden Gloves Championship. During the day he would shadowbox in the living room if he was not playing monopoly with the kids in the neighborhood or riding his bicycle with them."Steve Schapiro
Image: Dustin Hoffman and Bob Fosse, Miami, 1973
Dustin Hoffman and Bob Fosse, Miami, 1973 "I have worked with Dustin Hoffman on a number of films. His warm human nature and sense of humor always extends beyond the time that the camera is rolling. On 'Lenny,' with Bob Fosse directing, at the end of the work day he was still leaping about."Steve Schapiro
Image: Yves Montand, Fifth Avenue, New York 1961
Yves Montand, Fifth Avenue, New York 1961 "Yves Montand, was walking on Fifth Avenue in between performances in his one man show on Broadway. Some people just have charisma." Steve Schapiro
Image: Dublin Hippies, 2003
Dublin Hippies, 2003 "Dublin Hippies in 2001 were no different from the Hippies I had photographed in Haight Ashbury. They expressed joy all day and had little to do with the problems of the outside world."Steve Schapiro
Image: Beggar in Prague, 2001
Beggar in Prague, 2001 "Walking at night in Prague, I saw this beggar lying prone on a bridge. People went by careful not to step on him, but giving him no money. It was a very cold night."Steve Schapiro
Images: left: Robert Kennedy Campaign, New York, 1966, right: Girl with RFK Poster, 1968
left: Robert Kennedy Campaign, New York, 1966, right: Girl with RFK Poster, 1968 "On the campaign trail, Robert Kennedy was loved by young and old. Everyone wanted to shake his hand and be close to him. He was, for me, a friend and a man who had the intelligence and sense of caring that could well have changed the direction of America." Steve Schapiro
Image: Robert De Niro, "Taxi Driver," New York, 1975
Robert De Niro, "Taxi Driver," New York, 1975 "Robert De Niro becomes the characters he plays both internally and externally. To prepare for the part of Travis Bickel for 'Taxi Driver' he drove a New York cab at night for a month."Steve Schapiro
Image: Martin Scorsese, Gun and Grapes, New York, 1975
Martin Scorsese, Gun and Grapes, New York, 1975 "Martin Scorsese’s early films had a New York toughness. I worked with him on 'Taxi Driver.' He seemed at all times to feel the weight of his work, heavy on his shoulders. It truly was a film that was more guns than grapes."Steve Schapiro
Image: Mia Farrow and Child, Bora Bora, 1978
Mia Farrow and Child, Bora Bora, 1978 "Mia Farrow has a great love for children. Working in Bora Bora she found this young girl and brought her close to her heart."Steve Schapiro

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com