As a teenager, Steigman began volunteering in the studio of photographer Joe Schneider, and eventually became an apprentice. The high school dropout from Brooklyn never went to school for photography.
#MAXELL BLOWN AWAY POSTER TV#
"The businessman part of him worked real well in print, but in TV it became a hindrance because he became too involved in the business."
"He didn't make it as big in TV as print," Hurewitz says. He made several smart real estate investments that left him with a small fortune. The photographer parlayed his successful print business, known as Big City Productions, into a burgeoning film business. His photograph of tennis great John McEnroe standing in front of the Brooklyn Bridge was one of the first Nike campaigns to use star athletes. Steigman was one of the top advertising photographers in the Eighties, shooting campaigns for Miller Lite and Nike. Hurewitz says one of Steigman's schemes was to use a helicopter to drop the photographer's promo cards in front of ad agencies during lunch time, but Steigman scrapped the idea after realizing it wouldn't be legally possible. When the art directors let the pigeons out their office windows, the birds flew back to their owner with a note asking to see Steigman's book. He once sent art directors carrier pigeons in a box with a note tied to their legs. Known as "the father of modern self-promotion," Steigman's antics took the idea of promotion to the extreme. The photographer once went so far as to rent an airplane that pulled a banner with the photo and his name prominently displayed as the photo credit. The Maxell photo was the brainchild of art director Lars Anderson, but Steigman made no secret that he took the photo. "Steve was a pioneer in limiting rights, and that was one of the first major photos using restricted rights," says Gary Hurewitz of Hurewitz Creative Partners, one of Steigman's early reps. His best-known photograph, a popular icon that has served as Maxell's logo since the 1980s, shows a hair-blown man sitting in front of a speaker. Steigman was the first photographer to separate creative fees from expenses, and his innovative approach to the business-limiting duration and usage on his photography-became the model for others. "Steve passed away after suffering from depression," Peggy Flaum, Steigman's wife, stated.
Steve Steigman, the commercial photographer whose business savvy laid the foundation for many of the standard practices in use today, died in his home in Quogue, Long Island Oct. And to correct the urban legend, it was not Avedon as I have heard so often, but Steve Steigman, and it was staged by marketing.