Writer James Baldwin dances in New Orleans with a woman who worked for the Congress of Racial Equality. "Baldwin introduced me to the civil rights movement," Schapiro wrote. "I read his article about the conditions of Blacks in America, which later became 'The Fire Next Time,' and immediately called my editor at Life asking if I could do a photo essay on Baldwin. He struck me as someone who was particularly charismatic in the way he was influencing a very important subject."
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Actress and musician Barbra Streisand smiles as she sits in a bathtub in 1967. Schapiro shot album covers and artwork for Streisand.
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Robert F. Kennedy campaigns in California in 1967. He was assassinated shortly after winning the state's Democratic primary in June 1968.
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Director Martin Scorsese sits behind actor Robert De Niro during the filming of 1976's "Taxi Driver." Schapiro took photos on the movie sets of many famous movies, including "The Godfather" and "Chinatown."
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Boxing great Muhammad Ali strikes a playful pose in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1963. Schapiro was on assignment for Sports Illustrated, and this was early in the boxer's career. Schapiro said he saw a different side of Ali. "He really was extremely quiet and incredibly polite — in every way, just a terrific person," Schapiro told Rolling Stone in 2018.
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At left, a young activist wears white face paint reading "vote" as he takes part in a Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. At right, a woman at the march holds a sign that says "stop police killings." Schapiro's civil rights photos "bring us an intimacy and stillness that connect us profoundly with their subjects," Ahern said. "He made photos that informed, but he also made us feel — a byproduct of his remarkable talent but also of his own activism and point of view."
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Singer David Bowie holds up a biography of actor Buster Keaton in 1975. "He found out that I had photographed Buster Keaton and Keaton was one of his heroes, so we immediately became friends," Schapiro recalled in 2016. Schapiro shot a couple of album covers for Bowie.
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Protesters take part in the March on Washington in 1963. At center is baseball player Jackie Robinson, with his arm around his son David. Rosa Parks is also in front, wearing a black dress with a white jacket.
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Comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks poses with a prosthetic mask from his movie "Young Frankenstein" in 1974.
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Musician Ray Charles sits at a table full of executives in 1971.
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Comedian George Carlin holds a cardboard cutout of his younger self.
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From left, art critic Henry Geldzahler, actress Edie Sedgwick, actor Fu-Fu Smith, artist Andy Warhol and poet Gerard Malanga attend a party in New York in 1965.
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Robert F. Kennedy speaks to students at the University of California-Berkeley in 1966. "On his travels throughout the country, he was met with excitement and hope," Schapiro said in 2018. "He came to talk at a stadium rally in Berkeley, California, to an overenthusiastic crowd. Throughout the course of his speeches, he emphasized problems that were had and potential solutions."
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Surrealist painter Rene Magritte is photographed near some of his paintings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965.
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Couples are seen under the Coney Island Boardwalk in New York in 1961.
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Actor Marlon Brando has his hair and makeup done as he transforms into Don Corleone in the 1972 film "The Godfather."
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A child dances at the Apollo Theater in New York in 1964.
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Civil rights activist John Lewis is photographed in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1963. This photo was later on the cover of Time magazine when Lewis, a longtime activist and US congressman, died in 2020. "It's a picture of someone who knows who he is, knows what he has to do, and for the rest of his life, after this picture, he did it," Schapiro told Time.
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The Supremes — from left, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross and Florence Ballard — perform at a concert circa 1965.
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A woman sits in a rocking chair at a cabin in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1964.
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Artist Andy Warhol, left, and art dealer Irving Blum stand amid Warhol's "Silver Clouds" installation at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1966.
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At left, Martin Luther King Jr. speaks in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Selma demonstrators are seen on the right.
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Actor Martin Sheen glances over his shoulder as director Francis Ford Coppola directs "Apocalypse Now" in 1979.
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Writer James Baldwin comforts an abandoned child at a neighbor's home in Durham, North Carolina, in 1963.
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People join hands in Oxford, Mississippi, as they take part in the Freedom Summer Project in 1964. College students worked in Mississippi for 10 weeks to register more African American voters. "As we increasingly look to decode our pasts to understand the present, Schapiro's body of work is destined to remain as relevant and as poignant as the day it was shot," Ahern said.
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