About Tom Zimberoff

I am a classically-trained clarinetist, who studied music at the University of Southern California before pivoting to photojournalism.

I’ve covered hundreds of historical and breaking news stories and shot hundreds of portraits, including magazine covers John Lennon to Steve Jobs . . . even Ava Gardner’s last photoshoot, plus two sitting American presidents for the covers of TIME and FORTUNE. My first two portraits were Marx and Lennon: Groucho and John.

I’ve just completed writing "A Photographic Memory," a “photoir” filled with stories that begin when I was 21 and spent a with a day with John Lennon during the so-called “Lost Weekend." Then, how my career literally took off when I stowed away aboard a helicopter carrying the military dictator of Panamá. I didn’t think about the possibility of being invited to exit the aircraft before it landed. I was hoping desperately for an exclusive with the camera-shy ruler. It turned out to be my entrée to more than two decades of shooting for Time magazine.