Thanks for all your feedback on last week’s Steve Schapiro interview. On today’s blog we have part two of the interview with the legendary photographer and lifelong Nikon user. Steve gives us some insight into why he’s always used a Nikon, and offers up some advice to aspiring photographers.
So without further ado, here’s the English translation of the second part of Steve’s interview, taken from the Nikon French hub…
Image © Steve Schapiro
You have used Nikon cameras for most of your career (correct me if I’m wrong). Why? How did it help you with your work?
I have made special photographs with every model of Nikon cameras that have been brought out since I bought my first Nikon S2 Rangefinder camera in 1958.
I chose Nikon over Leica and Canon because I could operate the S2 using just one hand rather than two. The dialing system allowed me to focus, shoot and transport the film with just three fingers of my right hand. I then could use my other hand to hold a Mightylight strobe unit and bounce it up at the ceiling. This was a great advantage to the start of my professional career because I could be flexible in moving about quickly with my camera and have the advantage of indirect bounce lighting which helped define the scene, particularly when I was in a dark room. I could illuminate my subject’s world without the feeling of the photographer’s intrusion, with his flat direct flash.
Using this system, I spent time with Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) in Louisville and took one of my best known photographs of Andy Warhol and his entourage.
On the Selma March [the1965 Civil Rights March in Alabama], I carried four Nikon S3 rangefinder cameras – two for black and white and two for color - with an assortment of lenses. I also took an F4 Nikon SLR with an 180 mm NIKKOR lens, with which I did one of my best photographs of Martin Luther King.
Image © Steve Schapiro
Did you switch to digital? Why or why not?
Presently, I am shooting much more with digital. Recently I was doing a story about a small Iowa town where kids finishing school either moved to large cities or came back to their roots. I shot about 500 images with a Nikon D700 camera and brought it to a camera store where, for $14 (USD), I had a CD made. At the same time I had shot six rolls of black and white with my Nikon F4 film camera. I brought that to my photo lab and for developing and contacts, it cost me $120.
I worked on Michael Mann’s film, “Public Enemies”, using a D3 camera. Working at 6400 ASA in the dark night, my photographs of Johnny Depp came out looking like fashion photographs. And I could stop action in quick sequences.
Communications constantly change and move forward. At the same time, while black and white captures emotion so well, most people with digital today shoot only in color. I fear that the black and white qualities which made the great Life essays of W. Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier Bresson so special will soon disappear.
I choose to still make my black and white 30×40 prints, and smaller, in silver gelatin rather than archival pigment. In the same way that museums presently discriminate between vintage prints and modern prints, I think very soon the dividing line will be between silver gelatin and pigment prints, as silver gelatin printing goes out of style and the paper gets harder to find.
What advice do you have for aspiring photographers?
For young photographers, I always point out that we are all unique in the way that we see and that everyone has their own particular point of view. It is absolutely great to look at the work of master photographers, but their vision is already there. You will have to develop your own style, and unique vision, different than theirs. If you photograph situations and stories that you really care about, you will put all of yourself into your work, and it will show.
Remember: go for those extra elements. Even when you are satisfied with a photograph you have taken, ask yourself ‘how could I make this better’.
Photograph of Steve Schapiro / Image © Steve Schapiro
What do you think of Steve’s photographs? Do many of you still shoot with film? Let us know, and continue to share your pictures with us on our Flickr page.
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