Bob Shapiro: A life behind the camera
Written by BLUE COLE | Photographed by BOB SHAPIRO
Bob Shapiro is known throughout Coweta County for his impressive and awe-inspiring photography.
Light. Color. Composition. Sodium sulfite.
These are all technical components of a photograph, but an artist doesn’t focus on this. The photographer sees a moment, they position it, and they shoot it, catching the light and freezing the 1/10 second on paper, absorbing color and pausing time.
Long time Newnan resident Bob Shapiro is one such artist. For almost 50 years, he has documented the passage of time in Coweta County, which is blessed with locations filled with natural beauty, gracefully aging homes, and community growth marking the passage of time.
Shapiro got his start with a camera while in the U.S. Air Force where he learned to take and develop pictures. After the service, he moved to Atlanta and picked up jobs in a camera store selling equipment and supplies; he soon started shooting real estate and crime scene photos.
He arrived in Newnan as a staff photographer with The Newnan Times-Herald in 1973, working in the darkroom and shooting news photos.
“I always thought my darkroom skills got me the job at The Times-Herald,” Shapiro says.
In 1976, a two-door green MGB-GT that wouldn’t start led to a ride home, a second date, and his marriage to Georgia Carter. They married in 1978 and raised two sons.
In May of 1980, Bob bought a photography studio on Jefferson Street, a few blocks off the square in Newnan. He worked for over four decades in Coweta County, taking countless portraits as part of the community art and social scene.
“Sisters”
“We had wonderful north light windows in my shooting room at the studio,” says Bob, who became known for his portraits. Over the years, he’s photographed numerous clients as preschoolers, then high school seniors, and ended up as their wedding photographer.
After leaving The Newnan Times-Herald, Shapiro took on multiple commercial clients in Newnan, capturing the march of progress, including the growth of Yokogawa and expansion of Bonnell, among others.
“NYC Wedding”
“I really liked the commercial work I did,” he says.
Shapiro’s experience blends his outlook. He likes shooting scenic views, he made a living from taking portraits, and he always carries a camera.
“Art is in the eye of the beholder,” says Bob. “A well composed photo might not be art, while a poor one could be. As a retired portrait photographer, I always looked for simplicity in my work. In the studio, we never used a background that would detract from our subject. My favorite portraits over the years have always been window lit with simple but exceptional light and suitable for all ages.”
Bob Shapiro and his cameras bridged two eras in photography. In the first era, photography was much more than point and shoot, which most of today’s cameras are made to do.
Photography, then, was not only F-stop, film speed and focal length; a photographer was dependent on the skills of those in the darkroom, where negative images were bathed in chemicals and transferred as positive images.
“In film, you needed to get everything on that negative,” Bob recalls. “Then it was up to the lab to print it to your liking.”
A photographer had a chance to be an artist twice-over if they had skills in the darkroom.
The growth of digital cameras and computer software at the turn of the century provided new tools for the artist.
“Digital is a much different matter,” says the photographer. “I have total control of the finished image. Expertise in Photoshop allows you to make that image mirror the idea you had in your head. With film, I shared the finished product with my lab. With digital, it is all me.”
Prior to their retirement in 2023, the Shapiros purchased the former Powers Crossroads festival grounds in western Coweta County. Since then, they have cleared brush and freed the area from years of overgrowth that followed the last festival there in 2012. When the project is finished, the restoration photos might be memorialized in a photo book, according to Bob.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and a photographer is no different.
“What makes a photograph art, is a piece that speaks to you, that conveys a feeling, that speaks to you in more than a visual way,” says Bob Shapiro. NCM
Photography as Art
Written by BLUE COLE
“Storm Clouds at the Courthouse” by Bob Shapiro
Photography is the art of pausing time to capture a moment that would otherwise be forgotten. There is a connection with a street corner or a storefront. The curves on a green ‘73 MG, or the color of a dress.
The captured moment gives us a link not just to the past but to our own experiences.
A picture of the old OTASCO building in downtown Newnan may spark memories from Christmas or a birthday long past. We remember the details, the feeling, the item, but what we may not notice is the expression of pride on a father’s face in the background or the items on a table off to the side.
Old photos are memorable for their backgrounds and the people, what they are wearing, the momentary facial expressions. Writers try to bring the past forward – or the future closer. Photography can do this either/both as an inspiration or a reminder.
As art, photography is as varied as the subjects it captures. From breathing vistas to moments of triumph and tragedy, photography allows us to share time, people and places. Sometimes the art is grainy and rushed; other times, it’s a long exposure to capture the details our eyes can’t process the first time around. An artist’s eye can recognize it a moment before it passes.
