Photographer Marvin W. Schwartz has created an impressive visual record of diverse people, their activities and the unique environments they inhabit. His life work has received critical acclaim and international acceptance. With a career spanning more than four decades and covering over twenty countries, Schwartz's photographic legacy includes:

Six published books featuring photographs on subjects ranging from contemporary artists and their work, to aboriginal artifacts and the geological formations, to commissioned museum displays, and always people, young and old, at work or play, at prayer an celebration.

More than 20 exhibitions involving featured presentations and group show participation, sponsored by prestigious museums, art galleries and non-profit institutions.

Literally thousands of images created as a photojournalist, covering "hard news" events and as a visual essayist, depicting natural beauty, cultural, architectural, industrial and human subjects spanning urban America, Caribbean, South America, Europe and North Africa.

Schwartz approaches photography with aggressive intent. Timing is everything for Schwartz. He will not take a scenic photo if the sunlight doesn’t fall in the right way. “Let’s come back in the morning,” he says. (Or the afternoon, as the case may be.)

The same rigor is applied to his indoor, commissioned portrait work or industrial shooting. Lighting, again, is always critical but equally important is working with subjects to attain that “extra something” in their eyes, bodies and demeanor. He spends hours when needed to “get it right.”

Books on photography explain the nuts and bolts of this craft. But Schwartz believes other factors transform photography into art.. sometimes into great art.

“As a photojournalist, you look for the key dramatic elements in sometimes fast-changing, critical situations,” Schwartz observes. “Often there’s no time so you have to be alert, you have to be ready every second. And you hope for a little luck.”

Schwartz’s dedication and skill has yielded appropriate rewards. From 1963 through 1996 his individual photo essays have appeared in these publications:

Time, Fortune, Newsweek, Life, Forbes, Editor & Publisher, Parents Magazine, Chemical Week, Cue Magazine, New York Magazine, Esquire, Camera 35, Modern Photography, Popular Photography, Photography Annual, Signature, Sports Illustrated, Medical World News, Business Week, Art Direction Assistant, The Sun, Avenue, Travel and Camera, Review, Upper & Lower Case (The International Journal of Typographics), and the Unesco Courier.

As a photojournalist, Schwartz has provided hard news, celebrity and sports photos subsequently bylined by The New York Times, The Associated Press, united Press International, and King Features Syndicate, among others.

Photojournalism runs the gamut from mundane assignments to those with high adrenaline, From 1960 to 1962 Schwartz worked in Puerto Rico as staff photographer for El Mundo, the island’s largest Spanish language newspaper. From 1963-1966, he served as chief photographer for the San Juan Star, Look Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize winning English language daily.

During this period Schwartz photographed Puerto Rico’s leading political figures, visiting international celebrities, labor unrest, hurricanes and other disasters, and cultural events such as the annual concert series held annually in San Juan under the baton world famous cellist Pablo Casals. He became thoroughly familiar with the island’s variegated natural beauty and the expressive faces o its people-from San Juan to Ponce, from Loiza Aldea to Mayaguez, including the hill-folk (“Jibaros”) in the central mountains and the fishermen of the coastal regions.

Opting for free-lance photography Schwartz’s work continued to appear in island publications including Puerto Rico Illustrado, the caribbean Review , El nuevo Dia newspaper, The San Juan Star Sunday magazine, and later the paper’s Venue Magazine, as well as in Puerto Rico’s official travel brochure, “Que Pasa.”

At about this time he turned to large scale industrial and commercial photography for private U.S. corporations as well as infrastructure and life-style photos for agencies of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

In his free time Schwartz’s focused on his first passion: creating photographic essays. This started in 1958 in New York when he photographed Puerto rican Pentecostals at prayer - a powerful visual depiction of joyful faith. This became his first traveling exhibition and professional calling card.

Schwartz now proceeded to expand his portfolio of visual essays in Puerto Rico, producing to book-length publications, described below. In commissions from Puerto Rico public agencies and instrumentalities, he also amassed a treasure trove of photographs subsequently published in various venues.

Schwartz received a Creativity Award for captivating work performed for the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, depicting the Trust’s purchases of some of the island’s tropical forests, land’s-end and sea-scapes, and fascinating flora and fauna.

Schwartz photo essays have stood the test of time. No longer active as a photographer, his work continues to be included in group shows by museums in the U.S., England and France. Since 1956, Schwartz’s work has appeared in 20 major exhibition, listed at the end of this article.

In addition, Schwartz became the sole photographer/author of four critically acclaimed books cited below:

            1968 Puerto Rico. Grosset and Dunlap, Publisher. Black and white treatment of    

                        the island’s past and present. (Three paintings)

            1973Artists Address Book. Studio International Publications, Ltd., London,    

                        England, Publisher. Commission of the Whitney Museum of American Art,    

                        work resulted in portraits of 25 American artists represented in the    

                        museum’s permanent collection.

            1976“Huellas” (Aboriginal World of Puerto Rico). Institute of Culture, Puerto    

                        Rico, Publisher. Black and white photographs of petroglyphs, aboriginal    

                        artifacts, geological formations and indigenous plant forms recalling the    

                        island’s past.

            1977Auguste Rodin. The Burghers of Calais. Museum Press, Inc. Publisher.    

                        Commissioned by The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. (The    

                        Smithsonian Institute.) Photographic dramatization of the great sculptor’s    

                        bronzes dealing with a tragic episode in the 100 Years War of the middle        Ages.

Two other major books showcase Schwartz’s work as the featured photographer.

These titles include:

            1971Calder’s Circus. E.P. Dutton, Publisher. Commissioned by The Whitney                        

                         Museum of American Art, New York. Natural light, color photography of

                         sculptor Alexander Calder’s world-famed miniature circus figures. Selected          photos included in international traveling exhibit of the Smithsonian        

                         Institute, Washington, D.C. and in London’s Tate Museum 2006 Triennial    

                         Exhibition.

            1976Calder’s Universe. Viking Press, Publisher. Additional selection of the    

                        Calder photographs appeared in a special section of the Viking book.

Also in 1976. Schwartz created the Whitney Museum’s famous color poster of Calder’s “Lion” and a portrait of Alexander Calder himself “roaring like a lion”. The lion poster was later selected and re-issued by the Whitney for its “Save the Calder Circus” campaign in 1982, safeguarding the collection from foreign purchase.

Finally, selected examples of Schwartz’s work are now found in the permanent collections of four cultural institutions in France and three museums in New York City. These entities include the following:

            Museum of Modern Art - Paris, France

            Bibliotheque Nationale de France - Paris, France

            Maison Europeenne de la Photographie de la Ville de Paris, France

            Musee de l’ Art et del Histoire Du Judaisme de la Ville de Paris, France

            Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York City

            Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library, New York

Where did all this creativity come from? Schwartz is dismissive about the matter. “I grew up in the South Bronx. Two things saved my life. I hated needles (drugs) and I fell in love with my Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera.” Starting with the Hawkeye, Schwartz turned to developing film at age 13. “I’d ask everyone I met would they let me develop their film free.” At 16 he got a job making proofs for a wedding photographer. “I got the job because the photographer wanted to get a contract to shoot my sister’s wedding.” he says.

But dismissive remarks cannot conceal the strong viewer emotion and interest and the professional acclaim that Schwartz’s photography has generated over the years. Among his awards are:

            1960First Prize for Sports Photography

                Pan American Games, San Juan, Puerto Rico

            1964News Photographer of the Year

        Overseas Press Club, San Juan, Puerto Rico

            1965Human Interest Award

        Overseas Press Club, San Juan, Puerto Rico

            1973Best Address Book of the Year

        Artist’s Address Book. The New York Times

            1977New York Art Directors’ Award

        Huellas (Traces) A Study of Aboriginal Puerto Rico

            1979Creativity Award for Conservation

        The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, San Juan.

A few critical commentaries are in order, Says editor Sy Safransky of The Sun, A Magazine of Ideas, “Your work is truly astonishing. What a gift you have for unsentimental celebration. For genuinely embracing what is fragile, raw, and beyond understanding.”