Everyone in this world is blessed with their own unique traits and gifts. Along the way, as our own characteristics become intertwined with our talents and passions in life, it is then that we find our calling in life.
For Howard Schatz, photography is a way of life. Growing up in Chicago in the inner-city, Schatz remembers being your typical kid caught up in baseball, football, and the like before ever dreaming of getting his hands on a camera. Although his father and uncles always shot, it didn’t seem to be until after college that Schatz really immersed himself in his aforementioned hobby.
Schatz enjoyed an academic career as a retina specialist before turning his passion for photography into a successful career of his own. Over the years Schatz’s work has been exhibited in museums and photography galleries worldwide and his editorial work has been published in magazines such as Time, Sports Illustrated, Vogue, GQ Italia, The New York Times, and countless others.
An avid sports fan, Schatz has worked with several athletes while endearing himself to boxing fans through capturing the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Bernard Hopkins, Joshua Clottey, Shane Mosley, Jean Pascal and numerous other champions on film. The New York resident speaks with great admiration of the rigors that one must go through to compete inside of the squared circle and his admiration for boxing as a whole is striking.
I recently had the pleasure of conducting a one on one with Schatz and it soon turned into a deep look at all the interests in his life and what motivates him. I took particular interest in how he went about working with boxers on an up-close basis, how he goes about conducting many of his shots, and his overall goal in trying to convey a message through his work.
In his own words, this is what Howard Schatz had to say…
Early interest in photography… “Well, there is something about seeing the world frozen and being able to study it. The world goes by like a movie, it’s constantly moving, constantly changing. What happened fifteen minutes ago? What happened an hour ago? What happened yesterday? Somehow a photograph stops and makes you look and look and look. You see detail and you interpret things and understand things. It fascinates me to this day. It’s like looking at another world and being able to study it. I essentially make photographs for me. I make photographs to surprise and to lighten myself. When I am setting up a shoot, I know I can make a good picture but I can make something that is like magic? Can I make something that is wonderful? Can I make something that is spectacular and fantastic? That, I know, is extremely hard and very difficult and sometimes impossible but striving for it, the challenge of it, the yearning to do that just compels me.”
Improving your craft… “There’s a few things. One, you have to do it all the time. You have to live it and breathe it. It’s got to be a part of you. So, for as much as it takes you have to be constantly be working on it.”
Pursuing your interests… “I’m essentially interested in people. I’m interested in human form and things about people. I’m interested in T.V. and fashion, I’m interested in sports, I’m interested in the body, both in terms of its athletic and physical abilities as well as its sensual things. I worked on a project I shot for Vanity Fair. I see actors and I am interested in theatre and production. I’m interested in the creative process. I’m interested in their work. I’m interested in how you take print on a page and become a human being from it. It really fascinates me.”
Discovering dancers… “I was initially interested in dance. Back in 95′ my wife and I moved from San Francisco to New York. Nobody really knew who I was and I took it upon myself to do a project, to photograph and study dance and dancers. So I followed dancers all across New York City. Dancers are really great athletes. They can do things, just the balance and strength of their body, very few have that. So that interests me.”
Studying athletes from all sports… “Sometime later I did as book on sports called ‘Athlete’. I studied athletes in almost every single sport. I studied the sports videos, I freeze-framed what I thought looked like pictures and I tried to make those kind of pictures. And I realized when I did ‘Athlete’ how boxers where different from all other athletes. Not just that they are alone. Many athletes are alone. A golfer is alone, a tennis player in alone in competition. A runner, a high-jumper, a swimmer, but boxer is not only alone but they are alone and at risk. At risk for his health and his life. And that sort of determined courage fascinates me.”
A building process… “Each boxer that I have had in the studio that I have I try to learn all about them, and what moves them and what goes on with them in terms of preparing for boxing itself. And then we try to make pictures. And the few hours I spend, even with great champs, it’s sort of a bonding process. They come to trust me because I am there to make them look great. Not that I can do it every time but that is my goal and they understand that. And because they are athletes they understand that unless they work hard we can’t make great pictures.”
Meeting Accra, Ghana’s Joshua Clottey… “He’s a great guy. He’s a determined, fierce, passionate, motivated, boxer. I truthfully can tell you, all these boxers from other places, they all have interesting stories. What was their land like? What was their family like? What was their life like? What was it like coming to the United States?”
Getting fierce with Andre Berto in a memorable shot… “It was collaborative. It was part of the direction. I kept pushing him and I might have said a word like stronger, harder, louder, fiercer, scarier; I don’t remember exactly what he said but got it and he was very creative.”
Various places… “I like going to the Garden, I like going to Las Vegas. I was in Berlin shooting the first Abraham fight with Jermain Taylor. I’ve been to various places like Foxwoods, Atlantic City, I like it. Other than being a referee, what better spot is there in boxing other than being on the first rope for a fight. It’s a fantastic experience.”
The luckiest guy… “First of all, it’s a phenomenal privilege. A blessing. I was like the luckiest guy in the world. Showtime asked me to do that and I got to interview and photograph, personally, each one of them and then the new ones too, Green and Johnson. It was fantastic. All of those guys were different. Kessler is different from Froch who is different from Abraham who is different from Dirrell. All with different stories, all with different lives. And they all have this one thing in common. Wanting to be a champion. It’s fascinating and exciting and for me to be able to be able to make these boxers the way I have is something I feel is a tremendous fortune. A blessing actually.”
A different kind of respect… “I have great respect for those fighters. It’s very tough. They only fight, even though I know they spar, maybe one, twice, or three times a year. But yet they have to pay attention, stay in shape, and work towards those key moments. It’s really hard so I respect their focus, their ability to work hard, their ability to self-sacrifice and as I said before, I am in awe of their courage. It’s something that I don’t have myself. If somebody came up and hit me I would probably turn and walk away. That they could compete that way, knowing that they are going to get hit, is mysterious and fascinating to me.”
The gift of Manny Pacquiao… “Well, I think he’s great. He’s energetic. He’s got a gift. He has great energy. He is a religious man. A hard-working guy and he has a lot of friends. He’s a very rare, special individual. I think that every champ, every true champ, as it’s hard to be a champ, you have to have some rare gifts and abilities. A whole bunch of magic has to come together in a perfect way to create a champ. And he’s certainly embodies that idea.”
The main goal… “My main goal in boxing now is to finish my book and I have a list of boxers that I still don’t have that I would like to have. Nonito Donaire, the Klitschkos, either one, Floyd Mayweather, Kelly Pavlik, Tim Bradley, Brandon Rios, Saul Alvarez, Juan Manuel Marquez. I’ve got a list of about fifteen and I got about sixty or seventy champs but there is still a number left that I am working very hard to get. That’s my goal.”
What I wanted to say… “Well, there are all kinds of photography. There is photography of photo-journalism, of standing with a camera and documenting something that is in front of you. And at the other end of the extreme, setting things up and making a picture that you have in your mind. So, I’ve done a tremendous amount of studio work. In my ways most of work is studio photography. For about a year I spent figuring what I wanted to say with my camera. I worked a year to get this certain kind of lighting. It’s very complicated, there are eleven lights. It’s very exacting. It’s almost like a surgical, operating scene set up just right. I have to sort of make it right. So the look of the images came from working hard to find what I wanted to say and I hope you can tell what I wanted to say. You can tell who I am through the pictures. That’s what I wanted.”
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at [email protected]
