NEAL SLAVIN

b.1941, Brooklyn, New York City, NY

Neal Slavin is a world-class photographer and film director. His well- known photographic books include PORTUGAL with an Afterword by Mary McCarthy (Lustrum Press/NY), WHEN TWO OR MORE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/NY) and BRITONS (Andre Deutsch/London & Aperture/NY).

He has produced and directed countless TV commercials through his own production company, SLAVIN-SCHAFFER FILMS, for clients such as MacDonald’s, Burger King, Hasbro Toys and European American Bank. In addition Slavin’s feature films include FOCUS; written by Arthur Miller, which stars William H. Macy and Laura Dern and features Meatloaf and David Paymer.

His photographs are both privately and publicly collected. They are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television (now called The National Media Museum) in London, and the John Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, to name a few.

Slavin shows in both individual and group venues throughout the world. His work has been featured in the solo exhibition BRITONS at New York’s International Center of Photography (ICP) and England’s National Museum of Photography, Film & Television. He has also been honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and has been shown at the famous Les Rencontres D’Arles in France. His most recent show was at Foto/Industria Bologna 2015 Biennale.

He has photographed for most of the major magazines around the world including The New York Times Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Esquire, Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Life, Geo, and New York Magazine to name just a few. His work was recently featured in the online magazine SLATE in its blog called BEHOLD. It was also featured in other online magazines such as Feature Shoot, Internazionale, BuzzFeed, Ain't Bad, and L’Oeil de la Photographie.

Slavin’s work encompasses a professional career of over 40 years, during which he has photographed a myriad of subjects including such celebrities as Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Barbra Streisand and Phil Collins, among others. He has also pursued his own art which has led to the publication of the three aforementioned books.

He has been awarded a Gold Lion in Cannes for advertising, a Silver Cube from the Art Director’s Club of New York, five Addy Awards, and a Mobius Award. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in addition to receiving two CAPS grants and a National Endowment in the Arts grant. The American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP) named him Corporate Photographer of the Year. Slavin has been included in Esquire Magazine's article on the Ten Toughest Photographs of 1975. He has also recently been honored with both The Cooper Union School of Art & Architecture’s esteemed President’s Citation and the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Medal for Artistic Achievement.

His teaching credentials include classes and workshops at Les Recontres d’Arles in Provence, The Cooper Union, Manhattanville College, The School of Visual Arts, The City University of New York at Queens College as well as serving as a visiting artist at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently teaching a special combined class for Pace University and the International Center of Photography at his studio in New York City where he also gives private workshops. He is slated to give a workshop at the Palm Springs Photo Festival in April, 2016.

Slavin is currently working on a book of new photographs and a film entitled THE PRAYER PROJECT.  In addition he will be directing a feature length documentary called SEVEN AMERICANS.