Tom Zimberoff

Tom Zimberoff (born 19 December 1951) is an American photographer, photojournalist, writer, and entrepreneur. He is known for authoring The Art of the Chopper and Art of the Chopper II, books that showcase photographs of custom motorcycles and feature prominent names in the motorcycle industry.

Tom Zimberoff was born on 19 December 1951 in Los Angeles, California to Benjamin Joseph (a violinist) and Alyce (Lipsey) Zimberoff. He was raised in Los Angeles and then in Las Vegas, Nevada when his family moved there. He eventually moved back to California.

In the years 1970-1972, he studied instrumental music at the School of Dramatic Arts, University of Southern California. He fell in love with photography while studying at the university. To pursue his passion, in 1971, he signed up for an elective course in photojournalism at the USC. In a 1990 interview with fellow photographer Jeff Dunas, Zimberoff explained:

Early one morning I was standing in front of the USC library, where I was studying on a music scholarship. Suddenly a guy came running out of the library. He had assaulted someone, and people were chasing him. He ran across the campus and barricaded himself in the law school building. I was snapping pictures all the while when someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had pictures of all this. I said, "Yes." That was Tony Korody, who was the picture editor of the Daily Trojan, the school newspaper. He asked if he could see the film. I said "Sure," so we souped the film and he used it on the front page. He then invited me to work on the school paper. I accepted. I soon began to see the earnestness with which Tony, who later did much great work for People magazine, was approaching his work. That impressed me. Peter Read Miller, who now works at Sports Illustrated, was there too. You have to remember that at that time, there were few if any college-level courses in photography. There were no degrees given for photography, except, perhaps, at Brooks [Institute of Photography] or The Art Center [College of Design]. That began to change in the late sixties and early seventies.

Zimberoff's photography career effectively began while he was at USC. A few days after he signed up for the elective course in photojournalism, he was given his first class photo assignment. One weekend he was at a local Beverly Hills nightclub with his friend Steve Torme (son of singer Mel Torme), when all of a sudden actor Max Baer, Jr. (The Beverly Hillbillies fame) rushed in screaming that his R.V. was on fire outside. Zimberoff took pictures of the burning camper, which had rolled down the street and crashed into a lamppost near the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. He sold the pictures to wire services and they were published on the front pages of New York Daily News and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

He then quit USC without graduating and began working part-time at a Hollywood public relations firm and shot celebrities for them. At one party, he got introduced to the publicity director for Group W Broadcasting and Viacom in Los Angeles and thus landed a photography job in the show business, taking motion picture stills for advertising and television.

Next, Zimberoff started working in photojournalism and spent several years in Central America and other places, working for Time and other magazines as a member of the Sygma Photo Agency and, later, Gamma-Liaison. His photographs have appeared on the covers of Time, Fortune, Money, People, and numerous other magazines.

He left photojournalism for portrait photography. His first two portrait subjects were Groucho Marx and John Lennon. Over the years, he has toured with The Jackson-5, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, and Stephen Stills among others.

In 1993, he founded Vertex Software, Inc., which created PhotoByte, a business-automation software for photographers. In 1999, he founded Exactly Vertical, Inc.

In 2003, Zimberoff published The Art of the Chopper, a photograph collection of custom chopper motorcycles by such builders as Billy Lane and Dave Perewitz. He followed it up in 2006 with Art of Chopper II, which had a foreword by Metallica frontman and chopper enthusiast James Hetfield. The second version of the book profiled several builders and artists, including the legendary Indian Larry, professional motorcycle builders Ron Finch and Gard Hollinger, and non-professionals such as Staten Island's Mike Pugliese.

His works have been represented in collections at National Portrait Gallery, London, England; Israel Museum; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Performing Arts Library and Museum, San Francisco, CA; also represented in corporate collections.

Since 2018, he is a contributing writer at Storius magazine, based in San Francisco, California.

Zimberoff was married to his wife Molly Gleason. The marriage ended in a divorce.

• While freelancing with TIME magazine, Zimberoff got a chance to shoot 39th US president Jimmy Carter and Panama's ruler, Omar Torrijos.
• Working with Fortune magazine, he did a cover assignment to photograph President Ronald Reagan in a private setting.
• In May 1973, he was the exclusive photographer at the wedding of American swimmer Mark Spitz.
• In 1981, Zimberoff went to China with Secretary of State Alexander Haig and got a chance to shoot Chinese political leader Deng Xiaoping.
• Zimberoff also plays the clarinet.
• He has taught photography at San Francisco City College.

• Photography: Focus on Profit Oct 1, 2002
• Art of the Chopper Jan 1, 2003
• Art of the Chopper II Oct 17, 2006

• Every photographer's ambition, first and foremost, is to support his art, not to run a business.
• When artists struggle with the unanticipated reality of becoming entrepreneurs, they do not (or cannot) always act like responsible business owners. That makes it hard to be taken seriously. Yet they complain indignantly when they feel threatened economically by the leverage of a powerful corporate culture that seems unfairly poised against them. They wring their hands about meager cash flow, yet they are typically three days into their current photo assignments and six weeks behind on paperwork, including invoicing. That conundrum in particular has a disproportionate and adverse impact on the entire community of commercial photographers. One of its insidious consequences is a high rate of attrition, as many individuals fail financially. That has led to a steady decline in licensing fees and profitability for those who manage to cling to their careers.
• Every beginner who goes out of business is likely to pull a more established colleague down with him. Novices can do a tremendous amount of damage to the profession if they haven't learned how to price themselves fairly and competitively in the marketplace.
• Portrait photography is a predatory sport. Like a big-game hunter, I stalk my prey, look for a good clean shot, and try to avoid unnecessary wounds. I hang their heads on a wall to admire, like trophies.