Steinmetz was born in New York City and raised in the Boston suburbs of Cambridge and Newton until he was 12.

[3][10] He then moved to the midwest before, aged 21, he went to study photography at the Yale School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut.

[3][10] He left that MFA program after one semester and in mid 1983, aged 22, moved to Los Angeles in search of the photographer Garry Winogrand, whom he befriended.

He finds many of his subjects whilst walking around but he has also spent time at Little League Baseball and summer camps.

[17][18] Steinmetz predominantly works with black and white film, usually medium format, developed and printed in his own darkroom.