Jerry Schatzberg was born in the Bronx, New York, attended the University of Miami and worked as assistant to Bill Helburn (1954-1956) before starting his career as a freelance photographer.
Schatzberg captured the portraits of the generations most notable artists, celebrities and thinkers (from Bob Dylan to Robert Rauschenberg). His photographs have appeared on rock n roll albums sleeves and in magazines such as Vogue, McCalls, Esquire, Glamour, Town and Country and LIFE.
After directing some TV commercials, he made his debut as a film director in 1970 with Puzzle of a Downfall Child, the story of a fashion model. He then scored his second directorial effort, the gripping, finely acted, The Panic in Needle Park (1971), a bleak study of heroin addiction, starring Al Pacino in only his second on-screen role. Pacino worked again with Schatzberg, co-starring with Gene Hackman, in his next film, Scarecrow (1973), a moody tale of two drifters which in many ways represented the epitome of 1970s cultural alienation and confusion. He won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival that year.
From creator of poetic images to compelling storyteller, Jerry Schatzberg has excelled in both the realms of photography and filmmaking. His signed original photographs are highly sought-after among collectors and are held in several important private collections around the world.