Marc Shapiro is an award-winning journalist, photographer and musician. His articles and photos have been picked up by the Associated Press and Huffington Post, and featured on the websites of SPIN and Relix magazines.
Marc began his career at The Maryland Gazette and The Carroll County Times, where he covered the Great Recession, crime in low-income neighborhoods, commercial development and municipal government. At The Times, his investigations into certain closed-door practices of the City of Westminster’s government earned much praise from the community and prompted procedural changes. Prior to joining the Jewish Times, Marc served as the editor of hyper-local news website Owings Mills-Reisterstown Patch.
Marc joined the Jewish Times as a staff reporter in June 2013, became a senior staff reporter in October 2014 and managing editor in June 2016. He has won three American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Awards in his time at the JT for “Medicinal Reefer Madness,” which chronicled Maryland’s effort to start a medical cannabis program; “The Many Lives of Arnold Clapman,” a profile of a musician and artist experiencing rebirth in Baltimore; and “The Whole World is Seeing This,” which captured the Jewish reaction and response to the 2015 Baltimore uprising after the death of Freddie Gray. Marc has also written about religious observance in prison and told the stories of Iranian Jews who endured treacherous journeys to Baltimore around the time of the 1979 revolution.
A graduate of the University of Maryland and an avid music fan, Marc spent his college days interviewing and photographing a variety of musicians, including George Clinton, Richie Havens, The Wailers, 311, Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist, Zakk Wylde, and his favorite band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Marc is also an active guitarist who has played in various Baltimore-area bands over the years.
Marc’s photography has been featured in luxury travel magazine Inspirato, which published several of his photos from the 2014 Telluride Mushroom Festival. A photo of Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson is featured in “9:30 – A Time and Place Oral & Pictorial History,” the 35th anniversary book of world-renowned venue the 9:30 Club. The photo was taken during Marc’s year-long stint as a member of the venue’s house photography rotation, during which he photographed acts such as The Indigo Girls, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Sufjan Stevens and Yo La Tengo.
He also directed and wrote his first documentary in 2017 about the Charm City Bluegrass Festival and Baltimore’s bluegrass history. It is set for a February 2018 release.
