081 - Maggie Steber
© Maggie Steber
Documentary photographer Maggie Steber has worked in 67 countries focusing on humanitarian, cultural, and social stories. Her honors include the Leica Medal of Excellence, World Press Photo, the Overseas Press Club, Pictures of the Year, the Medal of Honor for Distinguished Service to Journalism from the University of Missouri, the Alicia Patterson and Ernst Haas Grants. In 2013, Maggie was named as one of eleven Women of Vision by National Geographic Magazine, publishing a book and touring an exhibition in five American cities. More recently, she was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Grant for her current project, The Secret Garden of Lily La Palma in which her dark alter-ego in an alternate universe where anything is possible and all ideas and characters are welcome.
For over three decades, Maggie has worked in Haiti documenting the history and culture of the Haitian people. Her essays on Haiti have appeared in The New York Times and she has a monograph published by Aperture titled Dancing on Fire: Photographs from Haiti.
Steber has served as a Newsweek Magazine contract photographer and as the Asst. Managing Editor of Photography and Features at The Miami Herald, overseeing staff projects that won the paper a Pulitzer Prize. Her work is included in the Library of Congress, The Richter Library and in private collections. She has exhibited internationally. Clients include National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times Magazine and many other.
Maggie is a member of VII Photos.
In episode 081, Maggie discusses, among other things:
Having to ‘flush out your subconscious’
Chainging direction
Why she loves teaching her ‘little babies’
How being a picture editor helped her photography
How she secured her first job as photographer/reporter
Her mother’s influence and documenting the end of her life
Her fascination with the warrior ethos
Haiti and the picture that changed her career
Why she likes to champion the underdog
“I’m a documentary photographer. I’ve covered everything from war to fashion; i’ve worked for the Geographic; I’ve done all these stories, but I realised a few years ago that I had all of these things stored up in my head and I felt I was experiencing the tyranny of documentary photography, because that’s what described me. But we’re so much more than what we do…”
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