MICHAEL SHAPIRO
Biography
Michael A Shapiro was first known for his photographs of invaded cultures, both the Lakota and the Inuit. Trained in photography during the late 1960s, he had to wait until his first sustained remission from a lifelong illness to begin this work in 2000. Between work on the Inuit and Lakota projects, Shapiro embedded himself with a rodeo company and traveled, making photographs of cowboys and rodeo workers both behind the chutes and during performances. This was followed by work with the homeless and victims of foreclosure. The Inuit, Lakota, and rodeo projects all resulted in limited book runs.
Born in Oakland, California in 1954, Shapiro grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and attended photography classes at the Sioux City Art Center (1966-1968). He began working as a commercial photographer, as a teenager, and after moving to Washington, worked for a small newspaper until it folded in 1973, when he sold his cameras and worked as a writer. After earning a graduate degree in writing and translation, Shapiro worked as a writing instructor until 1999, when he returned full time to photography.
www.michaelashapiro.com
Project Description
Urban Journal
I photograph people and their environment, the structural context that one generation creates and into which the next is born, in other words, the cultural landscape.
Urban Journal, as the title implies, is my visual journal. It is made up entirely of black and white photos taken in various urban environments, with attention paid both to people and the structures they occupy and created. The photos that are intended for my book project, have also been printed in large format (24”x36”) and were included in a well-attended and positively reviewed solo show at The Phipps Center for the Art in Hudson, Wisconsin.
Volume 1 covers photographs taken between 2008 and 2014. It includes photos taken in a variety of urban contexts, including Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, NYC, Toronto, and Chicago in North America and Amsterdam and Paris in the Netherlands and France. Volume 2 contains night photography in a variety of locations. Volume 3 comprises photos made in Dublin, Ireland. I imagine these journals to be published together as a set of what appears to be small composition style notebooks or personal journals.
Completing this project would not only make my work from the recent past more accessible, but it would also encourage my future projects and my exploration of photography as a medium.
I continue to shoot photos almost daily, amassing more than enough images for a future, larger and final volume (Volume 4) of Urban Journal.
Biography
Michael A Shapiro was first known for his photographs of invaded cultures, both the Lakota and the Inuit. Trained in photography during the late 1960s, he had to wait until his first sustained remission from a lifelong illness to begin this work in 2000. Between work on the Inuit and Lakota projects, Shapiro embedded himself with a rodeo company and traveled, making photographs of cowboys and rodeo workers both behind the chutes and during performances. This was followed by work with the homeless and victims of foreclosure. The Inuit, Lakota, and rodeo projects all resulted in limited book runs.
Born in Oakland, California in 1954, Shapiro grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and attended photography classes at the Sioux City Art Center (1966-1968). He began working as a commercial photographer, as a teenager, and after moving to Washington, worked for a small newspaper until it folded in 1973, when he sold his cameras and worked as a writer. After earning a graduate degree in writing and translation, Shapiro worked as a writing instructor until 1999, when he returned full time to photography.
www.michaelashapiro.com
Project Description
Urban Journal
I photograph people and their environment, the structural context that one generation creates and into which the next is born, in other words, the cultural landscape.
Urban Journal, as the title implies, is my visual journal. It is made up entirely of black and white photos taken in various urban environments, with attention paid both to people and the structures they occupy and created. The photos that are intended for my book project, have also been printed in large format (24”x36”) and were included in a well-attended and positively reviewed solo show at The Phipps Center for the Art in Hudson, Wisconsin.
Volume 1 covers photographs taken between 2008 and 2014. It includes photos taken in a variety of urban contexts, including Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, NYC, Toronto, and Chicago in North America and Amsterdam and Paris in the Netherlands and France. Volume 2 contains night photography in a variety of locations. Volume 3 comprises photos made in Dublin, Ireland. I imagine these journals to be published together as a set of what appears to be small composition style notebooks or personal journals.
Completing this project would not only make my work from the recent past more accessible, but it would also encourage my future projects and my exploration of photography as a medium.
I continue to shoot photos almost daily, amassing more than enough images for a future, larger and final volume (Volume 4) of Urban Journal.