Steve Lehman

Steve Lehman is an American-born conceptual artist whose oeuvre consists of photographs, videos, collages, drawings, writings, sculpture, objects, paintings and installations. He is also the founder of WillyNilly™, a digital lifestyle company. He is most famous for his book The Tibetans: A Struggle to Survive. Lehman’s work is distinct because of his ability to “sample” other artists, weave together many types of art and merge different disciplines. Background Lehman is born to a family of Jewish film industry pioneers and printers. His great-grandfather was an early film distributor, who sold “single reelers” in the early 1900s for Universal Films. Lehman's father’s side of the family owned Lehman Brothers, Inc., a high quality printing and engraving company. As a boy, Lehman studied art, photography, graphic design, film, and business from a young age. Career Lehman graduated Duke University in the late 1980s and then went to Tibet to live. He was trying to find a remote village of cave dwellers hoping to work on a visual anthropological project. The day before he was to leave to find the cave dwellers, he stumbled upon a group of monks demonstrating for independence. Though he had no interest in journalism, he quickly reacted and photographed the monks. His pictures and written account broke the story of the Tibetan unrest. Years later he wrote in the introduction to The Tibetans: A Struggle Survive, “Immediately I understood the implications of their (monks) actions and knew they were either going to be shot dead in the street or imprisoned. I was moved by their selflessness, by their decision to stand up for their beliefs and give up their lives for the greater benefit of Tibetan society. It was clear that they wanted me to photograph the demonstration and I reacted. There was no hesitation — witnessing those young monks sacrificing their lives was very powerful and I felt an obligation to do what I could.” However, as time went on, the moral ambiguity and physical toll of working in journalism weighed heavily on him and he eventually stopped. Upon his return the United States late in 1987, Lehman started giving slide shows to friends, relatives, people interested in Tibet and then began giving presentations at schools and universities. He also showed his photographs to legislators and had an exhibit on Capitol Hill sponsored by the late Congressman Tom Lantos and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.