By: Gary Hurewitz

The “Blow Away” shot had become iconic. It is hard to believe that it was taken 35 years ago. Steve Steigman was considered a Top commercial photographer at the time but this shot catapulted him into the top level. There was a point when he was considered one of the Premiere photographers in the country. He would have assignments almost every day and some days have double bookings. Steigman would say, “Just book em in and I will find a way to shoot them”. The Agency that created the add was Scali McCabe Sloves, which was one of the hottest agencies on Madison Avenue. It was actually on Third Ave. The creative director was Lars Anderson who was the stereotype, cool, good looking “Madmen” type of creatives in the 70″s. There was a subsequent Ad with the roof of a Porsche blowing up in the air. There was also another ad that was never produced. It was the same style and visual as original ad but instead of the stereo there was a window with an atomic bomb going off in the distance and the figure in the chair turning into an Xray. Maxell, the client, thought the ad was too radical and killed it. Steigman played with the idea of doing it as a sample but never did it. The original ad was put together by hand by the top retouchers of the day, Spano Rocanova. This was obviously before Photoshop. Steigman would go on to shoot many memorable ads including the first NIke Poster of John McEnroe in front of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Steigman created the company “Big City” and at it’s height it had 6 print photographers and many TV directors. Steigman was a brilliant self made man who mentored many people including myself. I have been a successful commercial photographers representative for 35 years and I owe much of my knowledge and success to Steve Steigman.