Born in Brooklyn in 1939, Sheila Metzner attended the Graduate school of art and design and the Pratt Institute’s Department of visual communications. After graduation, she worked for the advertising Agency Doyle Dane Bernbach and became the first female art Director of this Agency. Through her work, Metzner was able to meet and work with such masters of photography as Richard Avedon and Melvin Sokolsky. Sheila Metzner took a lot of photos herself, in parallel with working and raising five children. One of her photographs unexpectedly became a hit in the famous exhibition «Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960» at the Museum of modern art in new York. From this moment, numerous commercial orders and gallery exhibitions of the photographer began.
Metzner’s works are United by an easily recognizable author’s style, which is characterized by rich deep tones and soft focus. An example of the elegance and sophistication of her work is a photograph of Uma Thurman in a Patou dress, posing against a large sculpture in the shape of an inverted cone and sphere. Metzner is well known for her portraits of celebrities: David Lynch, Tilda Swinton, Kim Basinger. Actress Amy McDowell was photographed by Sheila Metzner in 1984 for the September issue of American Vogue.