Maggie Steber is an international renowned photographer whose work spans 72 countries, documenting humanitarian, cultural, and social stories with Depth and empathy. She has numerous honors including a Guggenheim Foundation Grant, the Alicia Patterson and Ernst Haas grants the Leica Medal of Excellence a World Press Foundation Award, Oversees Press Club Award, Pictures of the Year, The Lucie Award and the 2023 Photography Content Creator Award from Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award in Dubai. For more than three decades, Steber has devoted extensive work to Haiti, and her work in Haiti was published in a monograph by Aperture entitled Dancing on Fire. She wrote a book about her mother entitled Rite of Passage and Anything Can Happen.
National Geographic Magazine has featured 16 stories from around the world and has been recognized as one of 11 Women of Vision and receiving the National Geographic Photographers’ Photographer Award. Steber has served as a Newsweek Photographer and was named as Managing Editor of Photography and Features at The Miami Herald in 1999, where she oversaw projects that earned Pulitzer Prizes for the paper.
Steber’s clients include National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine and many other organizations. She has taught internationally at World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclasses many times, the Center for Photography, Leica Workshops, and many other photo festivals and workshops. She lives in Miami, Florida.
Statement
“Photography is personal. I am drawn to photograph all kinds of things because there is so much to see and feel. The camera opens doors and shows us life, people, places, wars, famines, suffering, joy and many more things than we can write about here.
“Photography saved me in many ways. Our photographs are our memories and those of others.
“I spend time with people because I learn from them as well as the places where they live and the ideas they share. I photograph to remember the best and worst of things because this is how we make sense of this life and world. Photographs change us and we are reborn each time we make an image.”
Dancing in her Blue Dress, 1990
A little girl in an empty space sings and she lights and dances lighting up the world.
Marie Randal Praying over the Ancestors, 2004
Marie Randal, an elder Oglala Lakota Indian, prays over her ancestors on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, her homeland, where her people were killed by white man soldiers.
Elly Swims in a Sea of Memory, 2007
Elly Choval swims in a sea of memories between Miami and Cuba (where she was born) that takes her home each time she swims.
Edward Hopper’s Bedroom, 2017
A dancer in Cuba rests in an old house after dancing and it looks like Edward Hopper’s paintings.
Ophelia, 2016
A girl floats in the water like Ophelia and I am reminded of Hamlet who broke her heart.
Sisters in their bed after Church
Four little girls sleep in their shared bed after Sunday Church, still wearing their pretty dresses.
