Living the dream
Not many people can say they’ve managed to live out their childhood dream, but then again, not many people are Steve Winter. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to speak to Steve from his home in New Jersey, where, thanks to Covid-19, he’s spent much of the past couple of years – rather than out in the field he loves so much.
This early ambition, he believes, shaped him as a photographer. ‘I had this kind of singular vision when I was younger, daydreaming as a young boy about walking down dusty roads and meeting people from exotic cultures, I just wanted to be there,’ he explains.
‘Seeing the same kind of powerful imagery on the nightly news really made an impact on me too – even though I was only eight or nine years old. Those photographs, they had the power to change. As I got older, and had to figure out something to be, the only thing I knew how to do was to take pictures, so eventually it became the driving force.’
To help realise his ambition, Steve attended art school in San Francisco and went on to assist the legendary Michael ‘Nick’ Nichols, who himself went on to become a photographer. Steve, , and of course the hallowed .
