Steve Schapiro, The Worst is Yet to Come, 1965
Steve Schapiro took pictures of amazing people and things. He took photos of presidents and movie stars, he got up close and personal with Andy Warhol and documented the Civil Rights Movement for years. I almost picked one of photos of Martin Luther King but actually there are too many and you need to look at these in your own time.
Schapiro is a documentary photographer first and foremost, he’s telling a story and capturing a moment through his lens. In an interview with Good Trouble mag, he wrote about how photography can lie:
Photography fascinates me; what people take photos of, what they decide to share and print, what we think are good photos. Especially now, when sending someone a photo is immediate and almost subconcious.
This photo was in the Elton John exhibition at the V&A and it stopped me in my tracks. WHAT A HEADLINE. (I did some independent research (I Googled): Muhammad Speaks was a US Black Muslim newspaper. Malcolm X was apparently one of its founders.) This photo is SO GOOD. I love the sense of foreboding, the drama and the emotion. I love the woman lying down, surely she is too relaxed for such intensity. Breaking news: things don’t always get better. This is heartbreaking and too real and uncomfortable.
WE MADE IT. NUMBER 100, BABY! AND it may be the saddest work of art yet. And also I wrote too much for it. But you’ve made it this far with me, what’s another paragraph? Is this the part where I thank you for sticking with me for 100 emails? Thank you, seriously. Without getting too soppy, it’s funny to me that you’re here and that some of you open these and presumably don’t hate them. I’m aware that I’m flaky and lazy and not a good writer, traits which someone who has a substack probably shouldn’t openly admit to. But it’s nice to do something for fun, something for nothing.
Congrats you’ve made it to the end! Todah Rabah.
Eleanor x