Howard Schatz (b. 1940) is a world-renowned American photographer who has received recognition for his portraits, as well as photographs created in a variety of genres, including dance, sports, and underwater photography. His success in photography was preceded by a brilliant academic career as a retina specialist. Turning his hobby — photography — into his primary profession and passion, he took a lot from his early professional experience, which taught him to carefully look into a person and find an approach to everyone.
Schatz is brilliant in different roles. In the role of a scientist, he examines in detail the structure and physical structure of the body, showing the viewer its beauty. In the character of an artist, Howard draws patterns of light and colour on figures. Finally, in portrait series, he acts as a director, inventing scenes and creating inferred conditions for interaction, both with famous actors and with people who, in other circumstances, would hardly want to be in front of the lens.
Schatz’s photographs contain references to various photographic practices and work by renowned authors from Robert Mapplethorpe to Greg Gorman and Gien Mealy. At the same time, his pictures themselves become unmistakably recognizable in the modern world of numerous images. Thanks to the large formats that the author chooses for his x works, the viewer gets the opportunity to correlate himself with the vision and see details that are usually inaccessible to our eyes.
Schatz has many prestigious awards, among them — «Photographer of the Year, 2018» (FotoFusion), «One Eyeland «Award — gold medal for the photographic book of the year «Schatz Images: 25 Years» (2015), gold medal (Rivne Photobiennale) (2010 ), «Lucie Awards» (International Photography)(2008), «Grand Prize» (Trierenberg Super Circuit) (2007) and many others.
His work has been exhibited around the world. It is part of numerous private collections and museums, including the International Center for Photography in New York, the Auckland Museum and the Musee de l’Elysee. Besides, Schatz’s photographs have appeared in numerous magazines including Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and on the covers of Time, Sports Illustrated, US News World Report and GQ Italia.
