Samuel Beckett

Maker Steve Schapiro (American, 1934 - 2022)

Date1964

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 5/8 × 6 1/2 in. (24.4 × 16.5 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/16 × 8 in. (25.6 × 20.3 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Estate of Lester and Betty Guttman

Object number2014.700

Status

Not on view

Description

Website Text

Photographs of eminent figures, like this portrait of Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), exemplify the Guttmans’ widespread cultural interests, from literature to theater. This photograph was included in Steve Schapiro’s 2007 monograph Schapiro’s Heroes, which brings together stories and photographs in profiles of ten iconic figures: Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Ray Charles, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, James Baldwin, Barbra Streisand, Truman Capote, and Beckett. Schapiro took this portrait, as well as several other photographs of Beckett, while shadowing the author, critic, playwright, and Nobel Prize winner during the production of his movie “Film” in 1964. Of the experience, Schapiro told the New Yorker, “Beckett seemed introspective and engrossed in his own world. Most of the time, I doubted that he was even aware I was there, and I am sure cared less… As introverted and taciturn as he was reputed to be, he was thoroughly engaged in the art of filmmaking. Nothing escaped his eye. He was attentive to every small detail…”