Steve Cagan

Steve Cagan was born in New York City, grew up in low-income areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx, and went to the Bronx High School of Science and City College. After getting a Master’s degree in US history from Indiana University, he returned to NYC for several years.

In 1970, he and his wife, Beth, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to work as regional organizers for New University Conference. They raised two daughters there, and they have lived there to this day.

Steve's photographic work has always been primarily connected to social justice issues. Among major projects, he has documented aspects of working life for working-class people in Ohio, as well as working on a project to explore the effects of factory closings in the area. A visit to all the countries of Indochina in 1974 convinced him of the possibility of using photography as a contribution to movements for social change.

Steve's main projects over the last thirty years have been in Latin America—in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, and for the last ten years, Colombia. His most important theme in all this work has been the everyday resistance of grassroots people to the economic and social problems they have to confront. 

Steve was a photography professor at Rutgers University (1985-1993), and has taught courses and workshops in a number of institutions in the US and Latin America. His awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Fulbright Fellowships, and several awards from the Ohio and New Jersey Arts Councils, among others.

He has exhibited and published on four continents.