Depth of Field – Mark Shapiro

Born in Toronto, Canada, Shapiro took his first photos at the age of seven when his grandfather gave him a camera. One image that particularly inspired him was the cover photo on a 1962 issue of life magazine, showing a girl doing a handstand on a skateboard.

While in college, Mark Shapiro shot photos with a manual camera and lens, developing them in a lab his roommate had set up. Graduating from trade school with a degree as a mechanical draftsman, he got a job in a factory outside of Toronto but was rapidly disillusioned. A co-worker who was from Zurich urged Shapiro to see Switzerland. So, in 1970, Shapiro left Toronto with a one-way plane ticket for Zurich, spending his first winter abroad in the ski resort of Verbier. Then, like now, it was a photographer’s idea of visual perfection. Powder was and is the obsession- skiable terrain all around. Shapiro took typical ski bum jobs to support his photography habit- he worked a grape harvest, followed by eight years working in Swiss hotels to buy film and equipment.

Today, Marko is considered the “Godfather” of freeride ski photography, having been one of the first to document the freeskiing movement of the 1970s. His work with “Team Clambin”—alongside John Falkiner and Ace Kvale, who lived in a chalet in Verbier’s Clambin neighborhood—is the stuff of legends, and spearheaded the pilgrimage of many ski bums to the Alps to seek the truth behind his mythical pictures. Exotic landscapes, big adventure skiing, and ridiculously deep powder were his trademark, and his subjects, a who’s who of the international skiing brotherhood.

Here are Marko’s Top 5 photos of his illustrious and inspirational career.