Smith taught him the technical skills and showed him how to develop his own views of the world and of photography.

His photos were published in Life, Look, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, Time and Paris Match.

Schapiro also shot the first cover of People, a photo of Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby.

He photographed on the set of The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola with a cast including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall.

Two years later, Schapiro was – by request of Robert De Niro – hired as a photographer on the set of Martin Scorsese's movie Taxi Driver (1976).