Steve Schapiro

In 1965, Steve Schapiro started documenting Andy Warhol for LIFE magazine: Warhol was cementing a reputation as an important Pop artist who drew his inspiration from popular culture and commercial objects. With his sunglasses, blond wig, and bland public utterances, Warhol was enigmatic, charismatic, intensely ambitious, and aware that to become a star, you needed the presence of people to document your ascent. Schapiro, also ambitious and hardworking, who in his own words "kept quiet and smiled a lot," was an ideal witness to Warhol's relentless rise from cult New York artist to 20th-century icon. Ironically, LIFE never published the story, so many of these images are seen here for the first time, scanned from negatives found deep in Schapiro's archive. Between 1965 and 1966, Schapiro busily photographed Warhol and his entourage of superstars, including the legendary Edie Sedgwick and Nico, hanging out art openings,. making his underground movie Camp, working on his silkscreens at the Factory, and roaming the streets of New York. Schapiro was also present at the opening of Warhol's first museum retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, attended by a hyped-up crowd of thousands -the night where art's coolest new king was crowned and Andymania was born. The final stop on the Warhol express train is Los Angeles, where Andy exhibited his ironic Silver Clouds at the Ferus Gallery, stayed at the picturesque Castle, and set up and filmed a performance by cult band the Velvet Underground. Featuring more than 120 photographs, Schapiro's images are juxtaposed with tipped-in plates of original Warhol artworks exhibited during the period. The art works include Before and After, 4, 1962, Colored Campbell's Soup Can, 1965, S&H Green Stamps, 1965, One Dollar Bills (Fronts), 1962, 100 Cans, 1962, Flowers, 1965, Shot Red Marilyn, 1964, Elvis I and II [Elvis Diptych] [Ferus Type], 1963-64, Green Disaster # 2 (Green Disaster Ten Times), 1963, White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times), 1963, and many others. Also featuring an interview with Steve Schapiro, who passed away in early 2022, and an essay and extended captions by official Warhol biographer Blake Gopnik. Andy Warhol and Friends 1965-1966 is a definitive portrait of a groundbreaking artist at a transformative period in postwar American culture.

An illustrated edition of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, with photographs by Steve Schapiro First published in 1963, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time stabbed at the heart of America’s so-called “Negro problem.” As remarkable for its masterful prose as for its frank and personal account of the black experience in the United States, it is considered one of the most passionate and influential explorations of 1960s race relations, weaving thematic threads of love, faith, and family into a candid assault on the hypocrisy of the “land of the free.” Now, James Baldwin’s rich, raw, and ever relevant prose is reprinted with more than 100 photographs from Steve Schapiro, who traveled the American South with Baldwin for Life magazine. The encounter thrust Schapiro into the thick of the movement, allowing for vital, often iconic, images both of civil rights leaders—including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Jerome Smith—and such landmark events as the March on Washington and the Selma march. Rounding out the edition are Schapiro’s stories from the field, an original introduction by civil rights legend and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, captions by journalist Marcia Davis, and an essay by Gloria Baldwin Karefa-Smart, who was with her brother James in Sierra Leone when he started to work on the story. The result is a remarkable visual and textual record of one of the most important and enduring struggles of the American experience. First published as a TASCHEN Collector’s Edition, now available in a pocket-sized Centennial Edition.

"It's dangerous to be an honest man." - Michael Corleone, Godfather IIIAs special photographer on the sets and locations of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy, Steve Schapiro had the remarkable experience of witnessing legendary actors giving some of their most memorable performances. Schapiro immortalized Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton in photos that have since become iconic images, instantly recognizable and endlessly imitated. Gathered together in this book are Schapiro's finest photographs from all three Godfather films, lovingly reproduced from the original negatives. With contextual essays and interviews covering the trilogy in its entirety, this book contains over 300 color and black-and-white images. Schapiro's images take us behind the scenes of this epic and inimitable cinematic saga, revealing the director's working process, capturing the moods and personalities involved, and providing insight into the making of movie history.

In June, 1963, on assignment from Sports Illustrated, peerless portrait photographer Steve Schapiro traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to spend some time with the young Olympic champion boxer Cassius Clay, and accompany him on a road trip to New York City. At 21, Clay was yet to adopt the mantel of Muhammad Ali, but his boastful persona, intelligence, black pride, and sharp tongue were already fully formed. Over the course of their five days together, Schapiro—a master at developing trust and capturing unguarded intimacy on film—revealed both sides of the young Ali: the one side posing and preening for the camera, ever conscious of his image; the other, unguarded and unselfconscious, in candid images of the young fighter at home with his family and immersed in his community and neighborhood. Ali collects the best of Schapiro's images of the late fighter; many in print for the first time ever. They offer a glimpse of a star on the rise. It is an indelible portrait of the early life of one of the most talented, graceful, controversial, athletic, and influential American figures of the 20th century.