Updated 2:01 PM EST, Fri January 21, 2022
Steve Schapiro, an acclaimed photojournalist perhaps best known for his work documenting the civil rights movement, died January 15 at the age of 87.
"We have lost a giant of 20th-century photography, and Schapiro's contributions are immeasurable," said Bob Ahern, director of archive photography for Getty Images. "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."
Schapiro photographed the March on Washington in 1963 as well as the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. He took iconic images of Martin Luther King Jr. and covered Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign.
Schapiro "was important to the movement," filmmaker Ava DuVernay tweeted after his death, adding that "his images moved minds during a crucial time."
Schapiro was also known for his portraits of some of the world's biggest celebrities, including Muhammad Ali, David Bowie and Barbra Streisand. He worked on movie sets, too, producing still photography for "The Godfather," "Taxi Driver" and other major films.
Through the years, his work appeared on the covers of countless magazines, including Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair.
"It's rare to find photographers that can make photographs across so many genres and with such ease, but Steve's camera intersected with so many pivotal points in history and he did it all," Ahern said.
