Rowland Scherman

b.1937
Born in New York in 1937, Rowland Scherman studied Fine Arts at Oberlin College. In 1957, he was the dark room apprentice at LIFE magazine, and upon returning to college he began a photographic career that has spanned nearly a half a century.

Scherman became the first photographer for the newly-formed Peace Corps in 1961, and traveled the world to help give the agency its image. He shot editorial, fashion, and covers for Life, Look, Time, National Geographic, Paris Match and Playboy, among many others. 

He photographed many of the iconic musical, cultural and political events of the 60's including the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, the March on Washington, DC, the Beatles first US concert and Woodstock. In 1968 he won a Grammy Award for that year's Best Album Cover, as well as the Washington DC Art Director's Award for Photographer of the Year. That same year, he traveled with Robert Kennedy during his campaign for the presidency, toured for a month with Judy Collins, and was in the studio when Crosby, Stills and Nash recorded their first album.

Living in England and Wales in 1971-77 Scherman ran an advertising studio for Conran Associates. At that time, he created the first freestanding anthropomorphic alphabet "Love Letters." He also herded sheep and was an apprentice carpenter in Abergavenny.

Upon returning in the US, Scherman moved to Birmingham, Alabama and resumed photography, doing portraits and corporate work. With the help of an NEA Grant, Scherman documented Alabama's famous Highway 11, which showed in museums throughout the state.

Now living in Cape Cod, Rowland Scherman returned to his first love, portraiture, and is continually inspired, as so many artists are, by the majestic Cape light.