AN ENERGETIC PHOTOGRAPHER AND PAINTER OF CROOKS AND ODDBALLS HAS CAPTURED THE ANXIETY OF OUR TROUBLED TIMES
Published on May 13, 2025
by Edward Gómez, with Steven Hirsch
NEW YORK — The photographer and painter Steven Hirsch (Instagram: @stevenhirsch) has contributed numerous images to brutjournal since the magazine first appeared in 2021. His point of view as an observer of the human comedy and his overall worldview have been deeply influenced by his work as a photographer for New York tabloid newspapers, which have never met a scandal whose salacious, tawdry details they weren’t eager to splash across their front pages.
In recent years, Hirsch was at the courthouse when Harvey Weinstein appeared for his sexual-abuse case, and when Donald J. Trump was arraigned for a long list of felony charges and then, later, when his trial ended, and his guilty verdict was announced.
Lately, like many Americans, Hirsch has been watching with alarm as the Trump-Musk, MAGA-Republican circus wrapped up in a Trump-worshipping cult has swiftly damaged or destroyed various federal-government agencies and programs, and steered the U.S.A. doggedly toward full-fledged fascism.
In his painting studio, he has been producing a flurry of images. Seen together, many of them seem to exude an air of anxiety and restless, unmistakable weirdness. In their own way, they seem to be taking the pulse of the current social-cultural-political moment.
Here, we offer a portfolio of these provocative pictures, along with the artist’s comments about them. The images seen here date from the early part of the coronavirus pandemic, at which time, remarkably, Hirsch already was anticipating certain developments that have since come to pass.
We asked Steven Hirsch when he started creating the paintings that we’re now examining with our theme of “The New Dystopia” in mind. He answered with precision.
He said, “These paintings date from Monday, March 16, 2020, until now. I was at Manhattan Criminal Court on that day in March 2020, photographing the trial of a neurosurgeon accused of molesting one of his patients. Everyone knew that COVID was coming, but when the lawyer for the defendant [who was not yet in the courtroom] called in to the court and could be heard on the judge’s speakerphone, coughing and complaining of a high fever, I realized at that moment that the world would never be the same. The lawyer said he was going home.”
“The judge looked over at me. I was poised with my camera, ready to start photographing. I muttered the word ‘mistrial,’ and she immediately declared a mistrial. Then I headed out to the lobby, where I photographed the lawyer leaving the building. I kept a safe distance as he coughed his away across the park and headed home. I went back to the press room in the courthouse where I had a desk, sent the photos I had just taken for the newspaper I was working for, and contemplated what had just taken place. I was scared. That lawyer was the first person I knew who fell ill with COVID.”
For Hirsch, the current dystopian era began with the onset of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
He recalled that, the day after the episode with the coughing lawyer, the courts closed, having canceled their scheduled proceedings. Stores started closing. Hirsch went to a favorite art-supplies store to stock up on drawing paper and watercolor pencils. He said, “I barely left my apartment for six months. I drew every day on a TV table by my window. It turned out to be one of my most productive periods since I had started making paintings. Even then, I could sense that the world was taking a drastic turn and I started painting what we’re now describing as dystopian-feeling pictures.”
The atmosphere of the pandemic period deeply influenced Hirsch’s feelings and outlook.
He remembered its “general state of fear, uncertainty and anxiety.” He noted, “The inability to control my anxiety led to a startling change in my work. The stress, grief, and uncertainty of the pandemic period had a significant impact on my mental health. These paintings represent an externalization of my internal struggles and anxieties.”
Of course, as the whole world is aware, the pandemic unfolded during the first presidency of Donald J. Trump, who once advised Americans to drink common household bleach to prevent infection by the coronavirus.
Hirsch said, “The elections of Trump in 2016 and 2024 and the dystopian turn he’s brought to the United States have only added to the anxiety I’ve been feeling in recent years. Now, looking back, I suppose I can say that, when I first started making these paintings and drawings, I knew right away that I was on to something. The abstraction and the chaos in these images captured how I was feeling. I rarely start out with the intention of producing a series of thematically related works. But many of these pictures did end up feeling related.”
As Hirsch’s remarks reveal, making art as a way of responding to the uncertainties and unsettledness of the era that was inaugurated with the coronavirus pandemic came to him instinctively.
He observed, “Everything I do is impulsive. Of course, today, I’m aware that there’s a lot of talk about gloom and doom, but that doesn’t change anything. My work emerges out of my personal experiences and is not driven by anything else. If you understand my work, you can read my mind.”
[Scroll down to see more of Steven Hirsch’s paintings.]
