Life in pictures
Schwartz,‘ true photojournalist’ for News, dies
PHOTOGRAPHER Michael Schwartz, an award-winning fixture on the city streets across two decades of service with the Daily News, died Tuesday. He was 73.
Schwartz, among the last of a generation of old-school tabloid photographers, was diagnosed in May with cancer, and “he stayed feisty to the end,” said his sister Sue Ashley.
Colleagues remembered Schwartz, born and raised in the Bronx, for a gruff exterior that belied his reputation as a gentleman who loved animals — particularly his cat Sam and his late German shepherd Norton.
“Michael was a true photojournalist if there ever was one,” said Daily News Editor-in-Chief Arthur Browne. “No news could break in the Bronx without Michael getting there first.
“Despite his tough exterior, he had a softness in his heart that’s evident in his photography. He was a gifted photojournalist and a wonderful man.”
Though technically never on the staff, Schwartz was a familiar figure who played a major role in the photo department family across his time with The News.
His keen eye for the perfect breaking news photo earned him three awards in four years for spot news coverage: Two from the New York Press Club, and a third from the Society of the Silurians.
In 2010, the Press Club cited him for “The Decision” — a photo showing police talking a suicidal man down from a window ledge. The year before, his photo of a pit bull in chains received the award.
The Silurians honored him in 2007.
Schwartz’s work on Sept. 11, 2001, remains in the Library of Congress collection of photos from the terrorist attacks, and his project “Irish Eyes” — showing kids growing up in West Belfast — was acquired for the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection.
Schwartz’s celebrity photos included a shot of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana walking hand-in-hand in the Bronx, a cigar-smoking Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill and Hillary Clinton singing side by side in church.
He was a lifelong student of his native borough, and one section of his website was dedicated to “Bronx Crime” — a riveting collection of crime scenes, police tape and perp walks.
In one photo, cops march a suspect out of a precinct with his hands cuffed behind his pants and his low-riding jeans wrapped around his knees.
“Underneath the stubborn, hard exterior was a very proud and loving man,” said News reporter Chelsia Rose Marcius. “We will all miss him dearly.”